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OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 


Venice  —  the  Campanile,  St.  Marks  and  the  Doges'  Palace 


OUR   ITALIAN 
FELLOW  CITIZENS 

In  Their  Old  Homes  and  Their  New 


BY 

FRANCIS  E.  CLARK,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

Author  of  "Old  Homes  of  New  Americans,"  "The 

Holy  Land  of  Asia  Minor,"  "The  Continent 

of  Opportunity,"  "Christian  Endeavor 

in  all  Lands,"  etc.,  etc. 


BOSTON 

SMALL,  MAYNARD  &  COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 


Copyright,  1919, 

Br  SMALL,  MAYNARD  &  COMPANY 
(incorporated) 


5RLF 
YBL 


INTRODUCTION 

One  of  the  most  interesting  of  the  allied  coun- 
tries in  the  recent  world  war  is  that  narrow,  boot- 
legged peninsula  which  juts  out  into  the  Mediter- 
ranean and  forms  the  eastern  shore  of  the 
Adriatic.  In  its  history  it  is  the  most  fascinat- 
ing country  in  the  world.  In  its  contribution  to 
arts  and  letters  it  is  unsurpassed.  The  ancient 
Romans  gave  laws  not  only  to  Italy  but  to  all 
the  world,  and  these  laws  are  still  in  force. 

The  modern  Italian  has  shown  himself  as  in- 
trepid in  war,  and  as  resourceful  in  overcoming 
difficulties,  as  the  legionaries  of  ancient  Rome. 

Italy  is  of  peculiar  interest,  not  only  because 
we  were  associated  with  her  in  the  recent  earth- 
shaking  crisis,  but  because  she  has  sent  so  many 
millions  of  her  sons  to  our  shores,  and  is  likely  to 
send  millions  more  now  that  Peace  broods  over 
a  tortured  world,  and  because  the  Italian  ad- 
mixture will  profoundly  affect  our  national  life, 
and  our  racial  characteristics. 

My  purpose  in  this  volume  is  chiefly  to  make 
my  readers  sympathetically  acquainted,  so  far  as 
I  am  able,  with  the  Italian  of  to-day  in  his  old 
home  and  his  new. 


vi  INTRODUCTION 

For  this  purpose  I  have  not  only  studied  his 
history  and  his  achievements  in  the  past,  but  I 
have  tried  through  personal  acquaintance  to  un- 
derstand something  of  his  present  viewpoint.  In 
a  word,  I  have  sought  to  introduce  him  as  he  is 
to  my  fellow  Americans  who  trace  their  descent 
from  other  racial  stocks.  This  volume  was 
largely  written  in  Italy,  while  the  places  and  peo- 
ple described  were  freshly  in  mind. 

The  ignorance  and  brutal  indifference  of  many 
Americans  to  the  newcomer  who  seeks  our  shores 
is  often  amazing.  They  are  all  "Dagoes"  to 
him,  the  "Scum  of  the  Earth,"  as  Mr.  Schauffler 
entitles  his  remarkable  poem.  It  is  difficult  to 
disabuse  the  minds  of  some  Americans  of  the 
idea  that  the  immigrants  are  "a  horde  of  paupers 
and  criminals,"  while,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  there 
are  fewer  of  these  classes  allowed  to  land  on  our 
shores  than  can  be  found  among  any  similar 
number  of  people  in  any  state  of  the  Union. 

I  have  long  felt  that  the  cure  for  this  aston- 
ishing ignorance  and  indifference  toward  the  im- 
migrant is  simply  larger  information  and  better 
acquaintance  with  him.  This  larger  knowledge 
and  better  acquaintance  will  show  us,  not  only 
that  he  is  a  human  being  of  like  passions  with 
ourselves,  but  that  he  has  many  admirable  and 
redeeming  traits  of  character  which  we  may  well 


INTRODUCTION  vii 

imitate ;  that  he  will  respond  to  kindly  and  gener- 
ous treatment,  as  will  few  other  people,  for  his 
loneliness  and  isolation  make  him  peculiarly 
open  to  friendly  advances.  A  little  first-hand 
knowledge,  or  second-hand,  if  the  former  is  un- 
available, will  teach  us  that  the  average  immi- 
grant has  in  him  the  qualities  which  will  make  an 
admirable  citizen,  and  we  shall  no  longer  dismiss 
him  contemptuously  as  a  "Dago"  or  a  "Wop," 
but  will  see  in  him  not  only  a  man  and  brother, 
but  a  future  fellow  citizen,  who  himself,  or 
through  his  descendants,  may  contribute  greatly 
to  the  welfare  and  prosperity  of  our  country. 

Especially  is  all  this  true  of  the  Italian  immi- 
grant, and  while  I  have  striven  to  avoid  becoming 
his  eulogist,  I  have  tried  to  look  upon  him  with  a 
sympathetic  eye,  and  to  induce  the  sympathy  and 
regard  of  others.  I  have  briefly  rehearsed  the 
glorious  history  which  lies  behind  every  Italian, 
and  which  is  the  necessary  background  of  our 
picture,  but  especially  have  I  endeavored,  as  best 
I  could,  to  depict  him  in  his  home,  in  the  country 
or  city,  to  show  his  virtues  as  well  as  to  point  out 
his  failings  and  foibles. 

In  considering  Italy  and  the  Italian,  we  must 
never  forget  that  his  is  practically  a  new  nation. 
Scarcely  more  than  fifty  years  ago  Italy  did  not 
exist,  the  Italian  Peninsula  was  occupied  by  a 


viii  INTRODUCTION 

number  of  warring,  turbulent,  mutually  jealous 
and  suspicious  states,  and  as  a  result  of  this  state 
of  practical  anarchy,  ignorance,  violence  and 
degradation  followed.  A  country,  which  in  fifty 
years  can  make  out  of  this  conglomerate  mass  of 
hostile  elements  a  first-class,  flourishing  Euro- 
pean Power,  must  possess  citizens  of  no  mean 
qualities  of  heart  and  mind.  Still,  after  less  than 
two  generations  of  freedom  and  unity,  we  cannot 
expect  perfection  either  in  the  nation  or  in  the 
individuals  who  compose  it. 

Mr.  Arthur  H.  Norway  in  his  interesting  book 
"Naples  Past  and  Present"  puts  the  matter  ad- 
mirbaly  when  he  writes: 

The  most  careless  of  observers  can  see  that 
some  things  still  go  wrong  in  Italy;  that  the 
Italians  are  not  yet  wholly  made;  and  it  is  the 
easiest,  as  it  is  the  stupidest  of  tasks,  to  demon- 
strate that  forty  years  of  freedom  have  not  taught 
the  youngest  nation  what  the  oldest  took  eight 
centuries  to  learn.  It  galls  me  to  hear  the  super- 
cilious remarks  dropped  by  strangers  coming 
from  a  country  where  serious  difficulties  of  gov- 
ernment have  not  existed  in  the  memory  of  man, 
the  casual  wisdom  of  critics  who  look  around  too 
carelessly  to  note  the  energy  with  which,  one  by 
one,  the  roots  of  evil  are  plucked  up,  and  the 
refuse  of  the  long  tyranny  cleared  away. 

I  am  not  writing  a  political  tract,  but  I  say 


INTRODUCTION  ix 

once  for  all  that  the  recent  history  of  Italy  can 
show  more  triumphs  than  failures;  and  the  day 
will  surely  come  when  the  indomitable  courage 
of  her  rulers  shall  purge  the  country  of  those 
cankers  which  for  centuries  ate  out  her  manhood. 

To  present  to  the  best  of  my  ability  a  first 
hand  report  of  this  remarkable  people,  I  have 
journeyed  from  southern  Sicily  to  the  Walden- 
sian  Valleys,  from  Syracuse  to  Turin,  have  seen 
the  Italians  in  country  and  city,  and  have  lived, 
sometimes  for  months  at  a  time,  within  their 
borders,  with  the  view  of  presenting  to  my  read- 
ers a  fair,  unprejudiced,  but  sympathetic  account 
of  the  millions  of  men  with  Italian  blood  who  are 
in  our  midst,  and  of  the  millions  more  who  are  yet 
to  come. 

What  effect  in  the  long  future  the  war  of  the 
nations  may  have  upon  Italy,  or  indeed  upon  any 
of  the  belligerent  countries,  no  one  is  wise  enough 
to  predict,  but  it  is  entirely  probable  that  it  will 
draw  our  own  nation  and  the  land  of  the  ancient 
Romans  more  closely  together  in  sympathetic  and 
commercial  ties.  It  may  hasten  many  more  of 
Italy's  sons  to  our  shores.  In  any  event,  it  makes 
it  the  more  imperative  that  we  should  understand 
them,  through  a  study  of  their  history,  their  re- 
cent development,  and  their  racial  characteristics. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

Introduction        v 

I  Italy  and  America I 

II  Italy  in  the  Dark  Ages  and  Later   .     .  1 1 

III  Italy  in  Modern  Times 21 

IV  Italy  To-day 32 

V  Progress 43 

VI  Italy's  Ideals 53 

VII  The  Intellectual  Life  of  Modern  Italy  64 

VIII  Why  Italians  Emigrate 74 

IX  Italy's  Outlet 85 

X  The  Agreeable  Italian 96 

XI  The  Disagreeable  Italian       ....  105 

XII  The  Italian  of  the  North      .     .     .     .117 

XIII  The  Italian  of  the  South      ....  127 

XIV  The  World's  Winter  Playground     .      .  140 
XV  The  Sicilian  at  Home 149 

XVI  Education  and  Religion 160 

XVII  Will  They  Make  Good  Americans?  .      .  168 

XVIII  Where  the  Italian  Immigrant  Should 

Settle 178 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XIX    The  Future  of  the  Italian  Immigrant  188 

XX     A  Half  Penny  in  Naples — Bargains  of 

the  Streets 196 

XXI    A  Talk  with  Dr.  Goodheart,  Inspector 

of  Emigrants 205 

XXII    The  War  and  Its  Effect  on  Italy  and 

Italian  Immigration 214 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Venice  —  the  Campanile,  St.  Marks  and  the  Doges' 

Palace Frontispiece 

PAGE 

The  Christopher  Columbus  House  in  Genoa    .         .  12 

On  the  Roman  Campagna 32 

The  Amphitheater  at  Pompeii         ....  62 

Peasants  of  the  Hills 80 

A  Crowd  in  Naples 104 

The  Leading  Waldensian  Church  in  Torre  Pellice    .  118 
The  Leaning  Towers  of  Bologna       .         .         .        .136 

Genoa  Near  the  Great  Quays 144 

The  Boromean  Islands  of  Lake  Stresa      .        .        .  166 

Capri 180 

Lugano  and  Mt.  S.  Salvador 202 


OUR  ITALIAN 
FELLOW  CITIZENS 

CHAPTER  I 

ITALY   AND   AMERICA 

In  the  first  ten  years  of  this  century  more  than 
2,300,000  emigrants  sailed  for  our  shores  from 
Italy  alone.  During  the  first  decade  of  the  twen- 
tieth century  something  like  one  forty-fifth  of  all 
the  people  now  in  the  United  States  had  left  their 
sunny  fatherland  and  crossed  the  wide  ocean  for 
the  continent  discovered  by  an  Italian  more  than 
four  centuries  earlier.  When  we  consider  the 
multitude  of  Italians  who  had  made  our  republic 
their  home  during  the  last  century,  when  we  re- 
member the  millions  of  children  who  have  been 
born  and  will  yet  be  born  to  these  immigrants, 
down  to  the  third  and  fourth  generation,  for 
there  is  no  race  suicide  in  this  branch  of  the 
Latin  family,  we  can  begin  to  realize  in  some  de- 
gree how  profoundly  these  people  will  influence 
the  future  of  America,  and  how  important  it  is 
that  Americans  should  gain  a  just  and  sympa- 
thetic knowledge  of  the  peaceful  hordes  which 


2        OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

have  invaded  and  will  invade  this  Promised 
Land. 

What  a  marvellous  little  country  is  this  penin- 
sula of  Italy,  little,  comparatively,  in  territory, 
but  filling  more  pages  of  the  world's  history  than 
any  other  land  since  the  dawn  of  letters!  So 
many  mighty  events  have  been  packed  into  the 
story  of  this  peninsula  that  it  is  hard  for  an 
American  to  realize  how  comparatively  small  is 
its  area.  Not  counting  Italia  Irredenta,  110,675 
square  miles  measured  the  extent  of  modern 
Italy,  just  twenty-five  miles  less  than  the  area  of 
our  desert  state  of  Nevada,  while  New  Mexico, 
Arizona  and  Montana  all  exceed  it  in  size.  Cali- 
fornia is  nearly  half  as  large  again,  while  into 
Texas  two  kingdoms  of  Italy  could  be  packed, 
with  a  wide  margin  around  the  borders  of  both. 
Half  a  dozen  other  states,  like  Colorado,  Oregon, 
Wyoming,  Idaho  and  South  Dakota  approximate 
Italy  in  size. 

Yet  this  state,  so  comparatively  small,  is 
mighty  in  deeds  of  valor  and  statesmanship,  in 
art  and  letters  and  invention  and  discovery.  It 
has  given  its  laws  to  the  remotest  regions  of  the 
world ;  it  has  dictated  its  canons  of  painting  and 
sculpture  and  music  and  poetry  to  all  the  capitals 
of  Europe.  It  has  led  in  the  means  of  inter- 
communication which  bind  the  nations  together. 


ITALY  AND  AMERICA  3 

Its  early  emperors  taught  the  world  how  to 
build  roads  and  bridges  which  have  never  been 
surpassed  in  the  later  centuries.  It  sent  out 
Columbus  to  explore  the  watery  main  beyond 
the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  and  to  bind  the  new 
world  to  the  old,  and  last  of  all,  even  in  our  own 
century,  the  Italian  Marconi  has  made  electricity 
his  servant,  to  complete  the  work  of  Columbus, 
and  to  bring  the  ends  of  the  earth  together  by 
the  highway  of  the  invisible  ether. 

Before  the  war  the  bone  and  sinew  of  this 
country,  the  hard  working  peasantry  of  this 
marvellous  land,  flocked  to  our  shores  in  larger 
numbers  than  from  any  other. 

What  study,  then,  can  be  more  interesting  or 
valuable  to  Americans  than  the  history  and 
progress,  and  particularly  the  social  conditions 
of  this  people? 

The  task  of  outlining  their  history,  and  describ- 
ing such  a  people  in  a  succinct  and  readable  style 
is  enough  to  appal  any  writer,  and  to  merit  the 
sympathy  of  any  reader.  Yet  it  is  a  task  worth 
attempting  if,  thereby,  any  considerable  num- 
ber of  Americans  may  become  better  acquainted 
with,  and  more  sympathetically  inclined  towards 
these  fellow  citizens,  whose  influence  for  weal  or 
woe  upon  the  future  destinies  of  our  country  can- 
not be  measured. 


4        OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

The  Italians  differ  from  the  other  great  races 
of  the  modern  world  in  being  more  versatile  in 
their  abilities  and  their  achievements.  The  poor- 
est Italian  emigrant  is  by  blood  and  language 
linked  with  conquerors  and  rulers,  great  adminis- 
trators, artists,  musicians  and  poets.  Other  im- 
portant races  of  the  world  are  distinguished  for 
superiority  in  some  one  or  two  or  three  lines  of 
achievement.  The  Greeks  were  artists  and  poets 
and  orators,  but  they  were  never  great  adminis- 
trators or  rulers,  at  least  after  the  earlier  days  of 
their  national  glory.  The  British  have  dis- 
tinguished themselves  in  the  field  of  administra- 
tion and  colonization,  but  they  are  not  supreme 
as  artists;  the  Germans  are  philosophers  and 
have  been  considered  men  of  might  in  war  and 
diplomacy,  but  they  have  not  the  many-sidedness 
of  the  Italian  character. 

Moreover  the  Italians  show  great  recuperative 
power.  They  have  been  defeated,  but  never  an- 
nihilated, as  were  some  of  the  great  nations  of 
the  ancient  world.  They  have  suffered  innumer- 
able reverses  from  foes  within  and  foes  without, 
but  the  recent  renaissance  of  Italy,  which  after 
centuries  of  comparative  feebleness  and  decay 
has  placed  her  once  more  among  the  great  pow- 
ers of  Europe,  shows  the  resiliency  of  the  Latin 
nature. 


ITALY  AND  AMERICA  5 

At  the  present  moment,  the  common  people  of 
Italy  seem  to  be  coming  for  the  first  time  into 
their  full  inheritance.  No  longer  are  they  the 
serfs  of  the  Caesars,  to  be  cajoled  with  games 
and  bribes  of  corn  to  keep  the  peace,  as  was  the 
case  in  the  days  of  Nero  and  other  emperors, 
when  it  is  said  that  one  half  of  the  millions  of 
Rome  were  really  paupers,  fed  at  the  public  ex- 
pense from  the  great  storehouses  of  grain  which 
lined  the  banks  of  the  Tiber. 

As  I  write  this  first  chapter  of  my  book  in  the 
heart  of  Italy's  capital,  a  sympathetic  strike  is 
going  on,  which  has  stopped  every  tram-car  wheel 
in  Rome,  and  sent  every  public  cab  to  the  stables, 
and  shut  up  every  shop  along  the  busy  streets, 
with  the  exception  of  apothecary  shops  and  the 
restaurants.  And  what  is  the  reason  for  this 
absolute  cessation  of  trade  and  traffic,  on  this 
bright,  spring  day?  Simply  that  the  govern- 
ment has  closed  one  of  the  public  hospitals  and 
cab  drivers  and  street-car  men,  draymen  and 
clerks  are  showing  their  disapproval  by  a  strike 
which  may  last  for  a  day  or  a  week,  or  until 
their  grievance  is  redressed. 

Whatever  may  be  the  merits  of  this  particular 
strike,  of  which  a  foreigner  is  not  in  a  position 
to  judge,  it  at  least  shows  the  marvellous  strides 
which  modern  Italy  has  made  in  the  assertion 


6        OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

of  the  rights  of  the  common  people,  and  indicates 
how  long  a  road  has  been  travelled,  not  only 
since  the  days  of  the  Caesars  and  of  the  Guelphs 
and  Ghibellines,  but  even  since  Mazzini  and 
Cavour  and  Garibaldi  first  raised  the  banner  of 
a  United  Italy.  Surely  the  story  of  such  a  peo- 
ple, which  sent  every  day  for  years  almost  a 
thousand  people  to  our  shores,  should  be  of  ex- 
treme interest  to  every  American. 

The  earliest  inhabitants  of  Italy  who  are  re- 
corded in  history  were  related  to  the  Greeks,  and 
were  of  the  same  Aryan  race,  though  having  dis- 
tinct qualities  and  characteristics  of  their  own; 
while  in  the  south  of  Italy,  especially,  were  pure 
Greek  colonies  at  a  very  early  date.  Space  does 
not  permit  me  to  speak  particularly  of  the  Etrus- 
cans, Ligurians,  Venetians,  and  the  Celtic  tribes 
which  in  the  early  days  occupied  different  parts  of 
the  long  peninsula,  but  it  is  interesting  to  know 
that  the  Italians,  like  all  the  great  races  of  the 
world,  have  mixed  blood  flowing  in  their  veins. 

Greek  and  Celt  and  Norman,  and  Spaniard  and 
Saracen  and  the  barbarians  from  beyond  the  Alps 
have  from  time  to  time  sent  their  hordes  to 
devastate  fair  Italy,  and,  whether  conquered  or 
conquering,  have  in  time  been  assimilated,  and 
become  as  good  Italians  as  those  of  purest  blood. 
In  this  respect  the  history  of  Italy  has  been  not 


ITALY  AND  AMERICA  7 

unlike  our  own.  America  is  no  longer  English 
though  we  speak  the  English  language.  Saxon, 
Celt  and  Gaul,  Teuton  and  Slav,  Magyar  and 
Syrian,  and  last,  but  by  no  means  the  least,  the 
Italian  has  come  to  help  form  the  cosmopolitan 
American  character. 

For  more  than  two  thousand  five  hundred  years 
Rome  has  been,  except  for  brief  intervals,  the 
ruling  power  of  Italy.  The  year  753  before 
Christ  is  a  date  which  every  school  boy  knows, 
and  is  one  of  the  great  years  in  the  world's  his- 
tory, for  it  is  the  generally  accepted  date  of  the 
founding  of  the  Imperial  City.  From  this  event 
for  a  thousand  years  the  whole  civilized  world 
dated  its  letters  and  its  documents.  "As  the 
years  went  on,  all  the  little  settlements  on  the 
neighboring  hills  were  walled  in  as  one  city,  with 
Rome  as  the  largest,  ruling  over  all  Latium,  and 
from  this  time  Rome  continued  to  increase  in 
power  and  influence,  first  by  conquering  and  an- 
nexing many  peoples,  and  then  by  giving  laws  to 
these  people." 

It  is,  of  course,  impossible  to  tell  here  the  story 
of  the  Roman  Empire,  nor  is  it  necessary  for  our 
purpose.  It  has  been  well  said  that,  "The  his- 
tory of  Europe  is  almost  wholly  made  up,  first  of 
the  steps  by  which  the  older  states  came  under  the 
power  of  Rome,  and  secondly  of  the  way  in  which 


8        OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

the  modern  states  of  Europe  were  formed  by  the 
breaking  up  of  that  power." 

We  all  know  how  the  early  kingdom  of  Rome, 
which  lasted  from  the  foundation  of  the  city  to 
the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century  before  Christ, 
was  succeeded  by  a  republic  which  lasted  for 
half  a  millennium  until  very  near  the  beginning 
of  the  Christian  Era.  It  is  interesting  to  remem- 
ber that  the  decisive  battle  between  the  republi- 
cans under  Brutus  and  Cassius,  and  the  monarch- 
ists under  Mark  Antony  and  Octavius  Caesar, 
was  fought  on  the  Plain  of  Philippi,  and  that  on 
the  hillside  near  by  was  the  Roman  city  where 
Paul  and  Silas  were  imprisoned,  and  to  whose 
Christians  the  great  Apostle  wrote  his  Epistle  to 
the  Philippians.  It  will  be  remembered  also  that 
the  republican  army  started  from  Sardis,  the  an- 
cient city  of  Crcesus,  one  of  the  Seven  Cities,  to 
which  the  messages  of  the  Book  of  Revelation 
were  sent,  and  marched  across  the  mountains  to 
their  disastrous  defeat  at  Philippi.  Thus  all  the 
way  along  the  great  events  of  the  early  days  of 
Christianity  are  interwoven  with  the  great  events 
of  the  history  of  Rome. 

Nor  must  we  forget  that  it  was  the  splendid 
Roman  roads  and  bridges  that  made  it  possible 
for  Paul  and  Peter  and  the  early  disciples  to 
carry  the  news  of  Christianity  into  all  parts  of 


ITALY  AND  AMERICA  9 

the  known  world.  It  was  the  might  and  justice 
of  the  Roman  power  which  enabled  Paul  for 
years  to  escape  the  wrath  of  the  Jews,  though 
barely  with  his  life,  in  Corinth,  and  Thessalon- 
ica,  in  Iconium  and  Lystra  and  Philippi,  in  Jeru- 
salem and  Cesarea,  and  thus  he  was  enabled  to 
carry  out  those  marvellous  missionary  journeys 
which  resulted  in  planting  the  new  religion 
throughout  the  Roman  Empire  and  the  then 
known  world. 

Indeed  the  later  history  of  Christianity  is 
hardly  less  identified  with  Italy  than  these  earlier 
days.  Sometimes  it  has  been  a  Christianity  of  a 
corrupt  and  intolerant  character,  but  never  has 
Rome  ceased  to  exercise  a  profound  influence 
upon  the  religion,  as  well  as  upon  the  manners 
and  morals  of  the  world. 

I  need  not  allude  to  the  long  story  of  the  em- 
perors, good,  bad  and  indifferent,  who,  from  the 
time  of  the  Battle  of  Philippi,  for  five  hundred 
years  ruled  the  world.  Little  by  little  the  great 
nation  extended  its  power.  France,  Spain,  Great 
Britain  saw  her  conquering  armies,  and  bowed 
before  her  might ;  the  Latin  language  became  well 
nigh  universal,  and  the  manners  and  customs  of 
the  Romans  became  the  manners  and  customs  of 
civilization. 

But  Rome  was  not  satisfied  with  conquering 


io      OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

and  ruling  Europe  alone.  In  Asia  all  the  land 
west  of  the  Euphrates,  and  in  Africa  all  the  land 
north  of  the  Great  Desert,  was  ruled  by  Romans 
in  the  height  of  her  power,  and  the  eagle  of  the 
Caesars  was  everywhere  the  symbol  of  all-con- 
quering might  and  usually  of  law  and  order  and 
a  just  and  righteous  form  of  government. 


CHAPTER  II 

ITALY   IN   THE   DARK   AGES   AND   LATER 

For  more  than  a  thousand  years,  Rome  as  a 
kingdom,  as  a  republic,  as  an  empire,  was  prac- 
tically ruler  of  the  world,  patron  of  the  arts  and 
sciences,  maker  of  laws  for  all  nations,  and  ar- 
biter of  their  destinies.  Then  came  a  period  of 
about  the  same  length,  something  over  a  thou- 
sand years,  when  she  was  the  football  of  the  na- 
tions, buffeted  and  kicked  and  beaten  by  Huns 
and  Vandals  and  Moors,  by  Ostrogoths  and 
Visigoths,  by  heathen  Lombards  from  Hungary 
and  by  the  Byzantine  Exarchs  from  Constan- 
tinople. 

During  these  dark  years  a  few  dates  in  her  his- 
tory are  memorable.  One  was  the  year  800, 
when  Charlemagne,  the  son  of  Pepin  of  France, 
the  mighty  warrior  and  administrator,  was 
crowned  "Emperor  of  the  West"  by  Pope  Leo 
III,  in  St.  Peter's  Cathedral. 

To  pay  Leo  for  his  crown,  Charlemagne  gave 

to  the  Church  Spoleto,  a  city  situated  about  half 

way  between  Rome  and  Florence.     We  are  told 

11 


12      OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

by  the  guide  books  that  the  present  peaceful  and 
prosaic  occupation  of  its  inhabitants  is  the  gather- 
ing of  mushrooms  in  the  woods  nearby  and  the 
preserving  of  fruits  and  vegetables  for  the 
market.  Humdrum  as  this  little  city  is  to-day, 
its  gift  to  Leo  by  Charlemagne  was  the  unfor- 
tunate beginning  of  the  temporal  power  of  the 
Church  of  Rome,  which  lasted  for  a  thousand 
years  and  more,  even  down  to  our  own  times, 
and  proved  disastrous  to  the  spiritual  welfare 
of  the  church  as  many  Catholics  as  well  as  most 
Protestants  believe,  by  creating  a  great,  power- 
ful, and  sometimes  corrupt  hierarchy. 

Charlemagne,  however,  could  not  transmit  his 
great  qualities  to  his  descendants.  Three  of  his 
grandsons  were  his  heirs,  and  the  great  empire 
over  which  he  ruled,  consisting  of  Italy,  France 
and  Germany,  was  divided  among  them.  Italy 
fell  to  the  lot  of  Lothair,  but  later  was  merged, 
under  Otto  the  Great  of  Germany,  into  the  Holy 
Roman  Empire  of  the  German  Nation. 

The  long  and  bitter  quarrel  between  the 
Guelphs  and  Ghibellines  now  began.  The  Ghi- 
bellines  sided  with  the  emperors  and  the  Guelphs 
with  the  Popes.  This  is  really  the  quarrel  which, 
in  one  form  or  another,  continued  until  1870, 
when  Victor  Emanuel  marched  triumphantly  into 
Rome,  through  the  street  now  called  Via  Venti 


The  Christopher  Columbus  House  in  Genoa 


ITALY  IN  THE  DARK  AGES  13 

Settembre,  as  King  of  United  Italy.  This  event 
was  so  comparatively  recent  that  we  can  still  al- 
most hear  the  rejoicing  shouts  of  the  people,  and 
see  their  hats  tossed  high  in  air  as  they  realized 
that  once  more,  after  the  long,  long  centuries 
of  defeat  and  disaster,  Italy  was  again  free  and 
united. 

Other  great  names  must  not  be  entirely  omitted 
in  this  review  of  the  salient  points  of  Italian  his- 
tory. Frederick  Barbarossa  (Frederic  of  the 
Red  Beard),  a  German  Prince,  became  king  of 
Italy  in  the  latter  part  of  the  twelfth  century. 
Resenting  his  rule,  twenty-three  Italian  cities  re- 
belled against  him  and  formed  the  Lombard 
League,  which  at  last  triumphed,  and  compelled 
Barbarossa  to  allow  them  to  govern  themselves. 

The  story  of  these  city  republics  is  most  in- 
teresting, and  each  one,  if  told  in  detail,  would 
fill  many  volumes.  Genoa,  Pisa,  Venice  and 
Florence,  each,  in  turn,  was  the  conqueror  or  the 
conquered,  but  each  one  sought  its  own  glory  and 
preeminence,  and  none  cared  for  the  glory  of 
a  united  Italy.  The  Crusades  brought  great 
riches  to  some  of  these  cities.  Venice  particu- 
larly prospered,  at  one  time  being  mistress  not 
only  of  most  of  Italy,  but  of  half  the  old  Roman 
Empire. 

These  ages  of  war  and  turmoil  and  adventure, 


H      OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZEiNS 

of  city  pitted  against  city,  when  Italy  was  torn 
by  factions  and  quarrels  of  all  kinds,  was,  strange 
as  it  may  seem,  the  age  of  her  greatest  literary 
and  artistic  glory.  During  these  years  Dante 
and  Petrarch  wrote,  Cimabue  set  new  ideals  be- 
fore all  modern  painters,  and  Giotto  built  his 
wonderful  cathedral  and  campanile. 

Corrupt  as  were  many  of  the  ecclesiastical  and 
political  rulers,  reformers  and  men  of  eminent 
piety  were  not  wanting,  perhaps  raised  up  and 
made  eloquent  and  powerful  by  their  revolt 
against  the  corruption  of  the  age.  It  is  only 
necessary  to  mention  the  names  of  St.  Francis 
and  Savonarola  to  prove  this,  and  to  prove  also 
the  virile,  unconquerable  strain  always  found  in 
the  Italian  character  even  in  Italy's  most  deca- 
dent days. 

An  event  of  peculiar  interest  to  Americans  oc- 
curred in  Genoa  in  1435,  for  then  a  little  boy 
was  born  to  Dominico  and  Susanna  Colombo,  a 
son  whom  they  named  Cristoforo,  or  the  Christ- 
bearer,  an  unconscious  prophecy,  perhaps,  on 
their  part  that  this  son,  grown  to  be  a  man,  fifty- 
seven  years  later,  should  dare  to  carry  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  religion  of  Christ  across  the  wide 
Atlantic,  and,  for  his  first  act,  plant  the  cross  on 
the  shore  of  the  New  World.  The  pictures  of 
St.  Christopher,  which  one  so  often  sees,  repre- 


ITALY  IN  THE  DARK  AGES  15 

sent  the  saint  as  bearing  the  Infant  Jesus  on  his 
shoulders  through  a  raging  river  torrent,  but 
Cristoforo  Colombo  carried  the  news  of  the  Sav- 
iour across  three  thousand  miles  of  stormy  seas 
to  the  Land  of  Promise,  which  so  many  of  his 
fellow-countrymen  are  to-day  seeking  for  their 
new  home.  • 

It  would  seem  that  Italy  should  have  profited 
more  by  the  discoveries  of  her  own  Columbus 
than  any  other  nation,  but  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
Spain,  whose  adventurous  monarchs  had  the 
faith  and  courage  to  send  him  out  on  his  quest 
for  a  new  world,  as  well  as  Portugal  and  Eng- 
land, profited  far  more  by  his  discoveries  than  did 
Italy.  Genoa  and  Florence  lost  the  control  of 
the  Mediterranean,  and,  singularly  enough,  it  is 
said  that  Italy's  sea  power  began  to  decline  from 
this  very  year  of  Columbus'  discovery. 

Two  hundred  years  of  disastrous  wars  fol- 
lowed the  memorable  date  of  1492.  Many  pow- 
ers attempted  to  get  their  slice  of  fair  Italy  and 
some  succeeded,  but  the  conquerors  were  often 
in  their  turn  conquered,  and  had  to  give  back  the 
cities  which  they  had  won  with  blood  and  rapine. 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century  and 
the  early  years  of  the  nineteenth  that  brilliant  me- 
teor named  Napoleon  Buonaparte  flashed  across 
the  political  skies  of  Europe.     Every  country  felt 


16      OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

his  heavy  hand,  and  many,  like  Italy,  had  reason 
to  bless  him  for  the  new  era  which  he  introduced. 
He  defeated  the  Austrians  in  battle  after  battle, 
drove  them  out  of  Lombardy  and  much  of  north- 
ern Italy,  and  said  to  his  soldiers  in  a  proclama- 
tion by  no  means  devoid  of  truth,  "To  you  will 
belong  the  glory  of  replacing  the  statues  of  he- 
roes who  have  rendered  Rome  immortal  and  of 
rousing  the  Romans  who  have  become  enslaved." 

The  Italian  republicans  greatly  rejoiced  at  the 
advent  of  Napoleon,  and  he  was  soon  able  to 
create  a  Republic,  which  included  Bologna,  Fer- 
rara,  Ravenna,  Reggio  and  Rodena.  The  capital 
of  this  short-lived  state  was  Bologna.  A  little 
later  this  republic  was  combined  with  the  Cisal- 
pine republic,  including  much  of  the  Papal  States, 
Lombardy  and  Venetia,  and  Milan  became  the 
capital  of  this  new  republic. 

Pope  Pius  sided  with  the  Austrians,  and  Na- 
poleon, punishing  him  for  his  partisanship  and 
his  treachery,  for  he  had  before  promised  to 
support  the  Napoleonic  regime,  compelled  him  to 
give  up  other  cities,  in  addition  to  those  he  had 
already  lost.  On  Nov.  27,  1798,  the  great  Em- 
peror entered  Rome  in  triumph,  and  "proclaimed 
the  Tiberine  Republic,  announcing  that  the  tem- 
poral power  of  the  Pope  had  fallen.  Pope  Pius 
VI  was  seized,  the  Vatican  plundered  and  its  art 


ITALY  IN  THE  DARK  AGES  17 

treasures  sent  to  Paris.  The  Pope  was  exiled  to 
France,  where  he  died  at  Valence  in  1799." 

About  this  time,  however,  Napoleon  found 
other  work  as  an  empire  builder  and  destroyer 
in  the  near  East,  and  sailed  for  Egypt  and  Syria, 
to  renew  his  conquests  on  African  and  Asiatic 
soil.  Seeing  their  great  opponent  safely  off  for 
Egypt,  England,  Austria,  Russia,  Turkey  and 
Naples  joined  together  in  another  coalition,  and 
at  first  apparently  were  successful  in  destroying 
the  French  power  in  Italy  and  the  republics  that 
Napoleon  had  so  recently  set  up  were  overthrown. 

But  the  triumph  of  the  allies  was  short-lived. 
The  only  ally  which  alone  the  French  needed  to 
turn  defeat  into  victory  was  the  commanding 
genius  of  their  great  general.  Against  this  for 
many  years  all  the  other  powers  of  Europe  could 
make  little  headway.  On  Oct.  9,  1799,  Napo- 
leon returned  from  Egypt.  Exactly  a  month 
later  he  overthrew  the  Directory  which  he  had 
left  in  charge  of  affairs  in  Paris.  Eighteen  days 
later  he  proclaimed  himself  the  First  Consul,  and 
soon  he  began  his  campaign  to  re-conquer  Italy. 
His  passage  over  the  Great  St.  Bernard  is  one 
of  the  most  memorable  and  romantic  events  in 
all  history,  but  it  was  finally  accomplished  suc- 
cessfully, though  with  incredible  pains  and  suf- 
fering on  the  part  of  the  soldiers. 


1 8      OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

The  decisive  battle  of  Marengo  followed,  when 
the  Austrians  were  driven  out  of  Italy.  Once 
more  Italy  became  a  republic  and  Napoleon  made 
himself  her  president.  The  lightning-like,  ka- 
leidoscopic changes  in  Napoleon's  career  followed 
rapidly.  The  First  Consul  became  the  Emperor. 
The  Italian  Republic  became  a  monarchy,  and  on 
May  26,  1805,  in  the  cathedral  of  Monza,  near 
Milan,  he  took  the  crown  of  Lombardy  and 
placed  it  upon  his  own  brow,  saying,  "It  is  from 
God ;  a  curse  on  him  who  touches  it !" 

The  pretence  of  a  republican  government  for 
Italy  was  now  at  an  end  and  the  peninsula  had 
the  same  government  as  France.  But  the  rest 
of  Europe  could  not  allow  the  usurper  from  Cor- 
sica to  enjoy  his  triumph  in  peace,  and  soon  an- 
other coalition  was  formed,  and  an  enormous 
Austrian  army  was  almost  annihilated  by  Napo- 
leon in  the  Battle  of  Austerlitz  in  the  last  month 
of  1805.  This  brought  the  whole  of  Venetia,  to- 
gether with  the  rest  of  Italy,  under  Napoleon's 
sway.  A  little  later  he  made  his  brother  Joseph 
king  of  Italy,  and  when  he  transferred  him,  like 
a  pawn  on  a  chess  board  to  the  Iberian  Peninsula 
making  him  king  of  Spain,  he  made  Murat,  his 
brother-in-law,  king  of  Naples,  and  at  the  same 
time  annexed  the  rock-ribbed  Island  of  Capri  to 


ITALY  IN  THE  DARK  AGES  19 

Naples,  since  he  had  just  captured  it  from  the 
British  admiral. 

Pius  VII  had  now  become  Pope,  and  wished 
to  have  his  temporal  power  restored.  This  Na- 
poleon refused  to  do,  whereupon  the  Pope  excom- 
municated him.  King  Murat  captured  the  Pope 
and  imprisoned  him  in  the  Palace  of  Fontaine- 
bleau  where  he  languished  for  five  years.  Then 
Buonaparte  still  further  cut  up  Italy  into  sections, 
and,  with  no  fear  of  nepotism  before  his  eyes, 
made  his  sister  Eliza  the  Grand  Duchess  of  Tus- 
cany. 

Nevertheless  Napoleon's  rule  was,  on  the 
whole,  beneficial  to  Italy.  Augusta  Hale  Gif- 
ford,  in  her  "Story  of  Italy,"  well  says,  "His  gov- 
ernments were  carried  on  according  to  the  de- 
mands of  justice,  and  besides  revising  the  bar- 
barous laws,  he  made  new  ones  so  perfect  that 
they  still  continue  to  be  used  in  jurisprudence. 
It  was  at  this  era  that  the  idea  of  a  United  Italy 
was  first  infused  into  the  hearts  of  the  people. 
.  .  .  He  constructed  new  roads,  and  engineered 
important  systems  of  canals,  beside  beautifying 
cities  and  encouraging  the  population  of  the 
country  districts  to  engage  in  agricultural  pur- 
suits. Napoleon  also  commenced  the  renovation 
of  Rome.     The  ruins  of  1800  years  in  the  Forum 


20     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

and  on  the  Palatine  were  soon  excavated  and  the 
imposing  columns  of  the  temples,  and  wonderful 
old  palaces  were  restored  in  their  original  grace 
and  stateness." 


CHAPTER  III 

ITALY    IN    MODERN    TIMES 

The  downfall  of  Napoleon  plunged  Italy  into 
political  chaos  for  many  a  long  year.  The  troops 
of  the  Allies  entered  Paris  in  1814  and  the  next 
year,  at  the  Congress  of  Vienna,  they  parcelled 
out  the  provinces  of  poor  Italy  among  the  most 
rapacious  and  persistent  of  her  claimants.  Tus- 
cany was  given  to  Ferdinand,  the  brother  of  Aus- 
tria's Emperor.  A  long,  narrow,  irregular  sec- 
tion extending  from  Modena  on  the  north  to  a 
point  half  way  between  Rome  and  Naples  in  the 
south,  was  given  to  the  Pope.  This  great  section 
of  the  most  fertile  part  of  Italy  contained  three 
millions  of  people,  and  supported  a  standing 
army  of  16,000  men  to  guard  His  Holiness  Pope 
Pius  VII,  who  had  been  liberated  after  his  five 
years'  imprisonment  by  Napoleon  and  had  re- 
turned to  Rome. 

Marie  Louise,  Napoleon's  second  wife,  who 
had  not  followed  him  to  St.  Helena,  was  made  the 
Duchess  of  Parma,  and  was  given  a  very  consid- 
erable slice  of  Italian  soil  in  the  north. 

21 


22      OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

King  Ferdinand  I,  one  of  the  unspeakable 
Bourbon  dynasty,  was  again  made  king  of  the 
Two  Sicilies,  which  included  Naples,  Southern 
Italy  and  the  island  of  Sicily. 

Thus  was  Italy  again  carved  up,  as  of  late 
years  the  Great  Powers  have  been  dividing  Af- 
rica among  themselves,  and  as  they  would  per- 
haps have  divided  China,  had  not  Secretary 
Hay's  policy  of  the  Open  Door,  and  some  other 
obstacles,  stood  in  their  way. 

The  only  little  strip  of  Italian  soil,  which  the 
Allies  spared  and  allowed  to  maintain  independ- 
ence and  self-government,  was  the  minute  Re- 
public of  San  Marino.  This  tiny  Republic,  hold- 
ing bravely  to  its  individuality  for  fifteen  hun- 
dred years,  amid  all  the  turmoils  of  war  and  revo- 
lution that  have  raged  around  it,  appeals  to  the 
imagination  of  every  true  democrat.  St.  Ma- 
rinus,  who  is  said  to  have  been  a  stone  mason, 
afterwards  raised  to  the  rank  of  saint-hood,  by 
the  Pope,  fled,  it  is  claimed,  from  the  persecutions 
of  Diocletian  with  a  few  comrades,  and  founded 
this  little  state  in  the  wilderness,  a  state  which 
has  never  known  a  king,  and  whose  people  still 
govern  themselves,  and  make  their  own  laws. 
Doubtless  its  insignificance  has  been  its  chief  pro- 
tection. As  even  a  crowd  of  bullies  would  hesi- 
tate to  abuse  a  child  or  rob  an  infant,  so  the  po- 


ITALY  IN  MODERN  TIMES  23 

litical  bullies  and  tyrants  who  ruled  Italy  for  a 
thousand  years  left  this  little  state  unmolested. 

Though  the  work  of  Napoleon  seemed  to  have 
been  wholly  undone,  his  plan  of  a  United  Italy 
flouted,  and  his  victories  turned  into  defeat,  nev- 
ertheless the  leaven,  which  he  cast  into  the 
meal,  never  ceased  to  work,  and,  though  the  day 
was  long  delayed,  and  the  reactionary  forces 
seemed  to  be  supreme,  the  glad  year  of  1848, 
the  year  of  Europe's  awakening,  at  last  dawned, 
and  after  twenty-two  years  more  of  struggle  and 
defeat  and  victory,  United  Italy  became  no  longer 
an  iridescent  dream,  but  an  actual  fact. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  even  after  Napo- 
leon was  banished  to  Elba,  during  those  mem- 
orable ninety  days,  he  was  urged  by  the  people 
of  Turin  to  become  their  leader,  with  the  hope 
that  he  might  afterwards  become  the  king  of 
United  Italy. 

I  cannot  tell  at  length  the  stories  of  the  revo- 
lutions of  1 82 1  and  1830,  for  they  were  soon 
dwarfed  by  the  greater  uprising  of  1848,  and  are 
chiefly  interesting  as  showing  the  ferment  which 
was  always  at  work  in  the  Italian  character,  and 
the  ideals  which  were  never  satisfied  until  Italy 
was  free  and  united  once  more. 

The  year  1848,  was  indeed  a  great  year  for  all 
Europe.     In  it  freedom  may  be  said  to  have  been 


24      OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

re-born.  In  France,  in  Germany,  in  Switzer- 
land, the  people  began  to  realize  that  their  hour 
to  rule  had  come,  that  kings  and  princes  were 
their  servants  and  not  their  tyrants.  Even  in 
Austria,  the  most  hidebound  and  reactionary  of 
all  European  states,  the  people  compelled  the  Em- 
peror to  grant  a  constitution. 

It  could  not  be  expected  that  Italy,  where  the 
seed  of  revolution  had  been  longest  planted  and 
the  longing  for  freedom  was  most  intense,  would 
be  slow  to  join  in  this  general  awakening  of  the 
nations,  and  indeed  it  was  here  that  the  new  ideas 
received  their  largest  and  best  development. 
Some  great  names,  which  Italy  will  never  will- 
ingly let  die,  were  now  engraved  upon  the  scroll 
of  her  history. 

Charles  Albert,  the  great  grandfather  of  the 
present  monarch,  was  the  king  of  Savoy  and 
Piedmont.  He  was  a  true  patriot,  and  devoted 
to  his  country  and  the  cause  of  her  freedom,  but 
he  had  been  considered  too  cautious  if  not  timid 
by  the  more  fiery  spirits  of  the  revolution,  yet 
he  now  declared  that  the  hour  had  struck.  He 
adopted  Cavour's  sentiment  that  "doubt,  hesita- 
tion and  delay  are  no  longer  possible,"  and  re- 
solved that  he  would  throw  himself  heart  and 
soul  into  the  fight  for  a  United  Italy. 

But  he  was  not  destined  to  live  to  see  the  desire 


ITALY  IN  MODERN  TIMES  25 

of  his  heart.  Like  Moses,  he  could  not  enter 
the  Promised  Land,  though  he  led  his  people  up 
to  its  very  gates.  He  was  defeated  by  the  Aus- 
trians,  was  looked  upon  with  suspicion  even  by 
his  own  people,  because  of  these  disasters,  abdi- 
cated in  favor  of  his  son  Victor  Emanuel  II,  and 
retired  brokenhearted  to  Spain,  where  he  died  a 
few  months  later. 

His  greatest  triumph,  as  is  the  case  with  so 
many  other  true  men,  came  after  his  death.  It 
has  been  well  said  that  when  his  body  was 
brought  back  for  burial  to  his  own  beloved  land, 
"Italy  recognized  his  sterling  virtues  and  made 
him  her  patron  saint.  Bands  of  pilgrims  jour- 
neyed to  his  tomb,  and  from  that  time,  all  felt 
that  to  do  honor  to  his  memory,  they  must  serve 
Italy." 

But  Charles  Albert,  though  wise  and  patriotic, 
and  the  nominal  ruler  during  the  early  days  of 
the  struggle  for  liberty,  was  not  the  chief  hero, 
certainly  not  the  only  hero,  of  the  new  order. 
He  must  at  least  divide  his  honors  with  three 
remarkable  men  who  were  as  providentially 
raised  up  to  secure  Italian  liberty  and  unity,  as 
were  Washington  and  Franklin  and  Jefferson  to 
secure  the  liberty  of  our  own  republic.  Whether 
great  times  produce  great  men,  or  great  men 
usher  in  great  days  may  be  a  mooted  question, 


26      OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

but  certain  it  is  that  when  they  were  needed  most, 
Mazzini,  Cavour  and  Garibaldi  came  to  the  front 
as  the  saviors  of  Italy.  Miss  GirTord,  in  her 
"History  of  Italy,"  has  thus  wisely  written  of 
these  men: 

"Of  the  three  leaders,  Mazzini  was  said  to  be 
the  prophet,  Cavour  the  statesman,  and  Gari- 
baldi the  knight  errant  of  Italian  independence. 
They  were  all  natives  of  the  Sardinian  kingdom, 
Mazzini  from  Genoa,  Garibaldi  from  Nice,  and 
Cavour  from  Piedmont.  .  .  .  Cavour  had  the 
genius  of  the  statesman,  together  with  practical 
sense  and  great  swiftness  of  detail;  and,  though, 
but  for  the  others  he  could  not  have  been  the 
savior  of  Italy,  without  him  Mazzini's  fanatical 
effort  would  have  been  abortive,  and  Garibaldi's 
dexterous  strokes  in  arms  must  have  resulted  in 
failure." 

Doubtless  Cavour  was  the  greatest  of  these 
Three  Mighty  Men,  and  though  there  were  many 
others  who  cooperated  with  them,  men  of  un- 
doubted wisdom  and  of  no  mean  ability,  yet,  as 
when  David's  heroes  were  enumerated,  "There 
were  none  others  that  attained  unto  the  first 
three."  Mazzini's  fiery  eloquence  aroused  the 
people,  but  he  was  by  no  means  well  balanced,  nor 
was  he  patient  and  wise  enough  to  deliver  the  peo- 
ple from  their  bondage.    Garibaldi  was  a  brilliant 


ITALY  IN  MODERN  TIMES  27 

general,  strategist  and  fighter.  He  was  the  fas- 
cinating Phil  Sheridan  of  his  day,  but  Cavour 
was  the  Lincoln  of  the  revolution,  wise,  states- 
manlike, patient,  undismayed,  and  to  him  the 
young  king,  Victor  Emanuel  II,  wisely  confided 
the  direction  of  the  affairs  of  the  state,  acknowl- 
edging his  superior  wisdom  in  the  halls  of  coun- 
cil, while  he  with  fiery  intrepidity  led  the  forces 
on  the  field  of  battle. 

Garibaldi  is  the  best  known  of  the  trio  in  our 
own  country,  for  he  spent  five  years  of  his  exile 
in  the  United  States,  and  probably  no  foreigner, 
unless  it  be  Kossuth,  was  ever  received  with  such 
unbounded  enthusiasm  by  the  American  people. 
As  in  the  case  of  Kossuth,  articles  of  wearing 
apparel  were  called  by  Garibaldi's  name,  and  he 
has  been  enshrined  in  our  Valhalla,  with  heroes 
who  fought  our  own  battles  and  won  our  own 
liberties. 

We  must  dismiss  the  story  of  these  gallant 
years  in  a  few  sentences,  but  it  must  not  be  sup- 
posed that  freedom  and  unity  were  won  in  any 
brief  campaign.  Victory  followed  defeat,  and  a 
new  defeat  came  hard  on  the  heels  of  victory. 
For  many  years  the  liberty  and  the  unity  of  Italy 
hung  in  the  balance. 

In  the  Crimean  War,  Italy  sided  with  Eng- 
land and  France  against  Russia,  for  Cavour  felt 


28      OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

that  Russian  despotism  ill  accorded  with  Italy's 
desire  for  freedom,  and  that  she  must  range  her- 
self side  by  side  with  the  enlightened  forces  of 
constitutional  government.  Afterwards  he  per- 
suaded Napoleon  III,  who  had  now  come  to  the 
throne  of  France,  to  side  with  Italy  against  Aus- 
tria, and  after  the  battle  of  Magenta,  which  re- 
sulted in  an  overwhelming  victory  for  the  French 
and  Italians,  the  two  kings,  Victor  Emanuel  and 
Napoleon,  entered  Milan  in  triumph. 

The  bloody  battle  of  Solferino  followed  in  a 
few  days,  and  in  these  two  terrible  struggles  it 
is  said  that  more  than  sixty  thousand  men  were 
killed  and  wounded.  Such  was  a  part  of  the 
price  in  human  blood  that  Italy  paid  for  her  free- 
dom. 

Francis  Joseph  had  then  come  to  the  throne  of 
Austria,  and,  indeed,  was  in  command  of  the 
Austrian  army  at  the  battle  of  Solferino.  As 
we  review  the  stirring  momentous  years  which 
have  elapsed  between  1848  and  the  present,  years 
that  have  meant  so  much,  not  only  to  Italy,  but  to 
all  the  world,  it  is  difficult  to  realize  that  the 
young  monarch  who  assumed  the  throne  of  Aus- 
tria in  1848,  the  revolutionary  year,  was  nearly 
seventy  years  later  the  venerable  Emperor  of  the 
Austrians  who  died  only  a  short  time  before  his 
own  country  went  down  to  ignominious  defeat. 


ITALY  IN  MODERN  TIMES  29 

In  1859,  after  the  battle  of  Solferino,  it  seemed 
as  though  Austria's  power  was  forever  broken, 
but  Louis  Napoleon  earned  his  title  of  Turn-coat, 
by  making  peace  with  Francis  Joseph  at  Villa- 
franca,  without  consulting  Victor  Emanuel,  and 
only  a  part  of  the  fruit  of  victory  which  Italy 
should  have  received,  became  hers.  Moreover, 
Napoleon  now  claimed  Savoy  and  Nice  as  a  re- 
ward for  his  alliance  with  Italy,  and  though  to 
give  up  Savoy  was  for  Victor  Emanuel,  the  King 
of  Savoy,  to  renounce  "the  cradle  of  his  mon- 
archy," Italy  was  not  strong  enough  to  resist  the 
demands,  and  from  that  day  to  this  Savoy  and 
Nice  have  belonged  to  France. 

During  the  next  ten  years  war  followed  war, 
and  the  soil  of  Italy  was  often  stained  with  pa- 
triot blood,  but  at  last  Austria  was  obliged  to  give 
up  Venetia  to  Napoleon  III,  who  shortly  handed 
it  over  to  Victor  Emanuel,  greatly  to  the  joy  of 
the  Venetians,  who  rapturously  greeted  the  Ital- 
ian King,  when  he  entered  Venice  as  its  ruler, 
on  November  7,  1866. 

The  conquest  of  Rome  by  the  Italian  patriots 
was  now  all  that  was  wanting  to  secure  the  unity 
of  Italy,  but  Rome  for  many  years  had  been  de- 
fended and  the  Pope  kept  securely  in  his  place  by 
French  soldiers,  and  as  France  had  been  the  chief 
ally  of  Italy,  there  seemed  to  be  no  way  of  dis- 


3o      OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

lodging  him.  However,  Providence  opened  the 
way  in  1870.  When  Napoleon  began  his  disas- 
trous war  with  Prussia,  every  French  soldier  was 
needed  in  the  fight  against  this  mighty  foe,  so  his 
troops  were  withdrawn  from  Rome  after  seven- 
teen years  of  French  rule,  and  the  Pope  had  to 
look  out  for  himself. 

When  the  French  were  finally  defeated  at  Se- 
dan, and  the  Republic  of  France  was  proclaimed, 
there  were  no  obstacles  to  the  entrance  of  the 
Italian  troops.  Victor  Emanuel,  desiring  a 
peaceful  occupation,  earnestly  urged  Pius  IX, 
who  was  then  Pope,  to  give  up  his  temporal 
power,  saying  that  "he  regarded  his  spiritual  of- 
fice with  the  profoundest  reverence,  but  that  the 
exigencies  of  the  times  demanded  the  downfall 
of  his  temporal  power,  and  it  was  hoped  that  he 
would  yield  amicably." 

This  the  Pope  absolutely  refused  to  do,  and 
commanded  that  "there  should  be  only  a  sufficient 
exhibition  of  force  to  prove  to  the  world  that  his 
realms  were  taken  away  from  him  by  military 
violence." 

The  twentieth  of  September,  1870,  was  indeed 
a  glad  day  for  Italy.  No  wonder  that  there  is  a 
"Twentieth  of  September"  street  in  every  con- 
siderable Italian  city.  On  that  day,  at  half  past 
nine  o'clock  in  the  morning,  the  Porta  Pia  was 


ITALY  IN  MODERN  TIMES  31 

battered  down,  and  through  this  demolished  gate- 
way the  soldiers  of  United  Italy  entered  the  Eter- 
nal City.  The  Pope  shut  himself  up  in  the  Vati- 
can, claiming  that  he  was  a  prisoner,  and  for 
nearly  fifty  years  his  successors  have  maintained 
the  same  figment.  Nevertheless,  the  Italian 
troops  have  dealt  most  kindly  and  generously 
with  him.  A  regiment  of  Italian  troops  was  at 
once  stationed  in  the  Vatican  Gardens  to  protect 
Pius  IX.  An  annual  allowance  of  nearly  a  mil- 
lion dollars  has  been  granted  to  the  Pope  by  the 
Italian  government,  an  allowance  which  it  is  said 
the  Popes  have  always  refused  to  touch,  lest  they 
should  seem  to  acquiesce  in  the  claims  of  the 
government. 

Rome  was  soon  made  the  capital  of  United 
Italy.  The  great  result  for  which  patriots  had 
been  longing  and  praying  and  fighting  for  nearly 
a  hundred  years  had  been  accomplished  and  Vic- 
tor Emanuel  could  say:  "My  heart  thrills  as  I 
salute  all  the  representatives  of  our  united  coun- 
try for  the  first  time,  and  say,  Italy  is  free  and 
united ;  it  only  remains  for  us  to  make  her  great, 
prosperous  and  happy." 


CHAPTER  IV 

ITALY    TO-DAY 

"Now  that  Italy  is  made,  we  must  make  the 
Italians !"  exclaimed  an  Italian  statesman  named 
Massino  d'Azeglio,  something  more  than  fifty 
years  ago.  To  the  making  of  Italians  as  well  as 
of  Italy,  have  the  years  since  the  entry  of  Victor 
Emanuel's  troops  into  Rome  been  largely  de- 
voted. Until  Italy's  entrance  into  the  European 
war,  they  were  for  the  most  part  years  of  ex- 
ternal peace  and  of  internal  development. 

It  is  true  that  their  peaceful  history  was 
marred  by  two  wars,  one  the  disastrous  Abyssin- 
ian War  from  which  Italy  had  to  retire  so  in- 
gloriously,  a  war  which  only  added  increased 
taxation  and  neither  glory,  territory,  nor  spoil, 
to  the  already  overburdened  nation;  the  other 
was  the  more  successful,  but  scarcely  more  jus- 
tifiable war  in  Tripoli,  which  added  large  domains 
and  large  responsibilities  to  the  kingdom,  and 
affords  an  outlet  to  her  surplus  population,  of 
which,  as  yet,  she  has  taken  little  advantage. 

During  all  these  later  years  Italy  has  been 

32 


ITALY  TO-DAY  33 

blessed  with  wise  and  conscientious  monarchs, 
who  have  sought  to  reign  rather  than  to  rule, 
and  for  the  most  part  the  affairs  of  state  have 
been  managed  by  able  politicians,  many  of  whom 
have  been  of  the  calibre  and  rank  of  statesmen. 
Of  Victor  Emanuel  II,  the  dashing  soldier  and 
intrepid  general,  we  have  already  spoken.  He 
was  a  true  patriot,  and  subordinated  his  own  in- 
terests to  the  good  of  the  nation.  In  this  respect 
how  different  is  his  story  and  that  of  his  suc- 
cessors from  that  of  many  of  his  early  predeces- 
sors, the  emperors  of  Rome,  whose  profligacy, 
debauchery,  corruption  and  cruelty  have  made 
their  names  malodorous  on  the  pages  of  ancient 
history. 

Victor  Emanuel's  purpose  and  character  are 
indicated  by  his  address  from  the  throne  at  the 
opening  of  the  first  parliament,  in  which  he  said, 
"The  work  to  which  we  have  consecrated  our 
lives  is  completed.  Italy  is  restored  after  long 
and  sacrificing  effort.  Everything  speaks  to  us 
not  only  of  past  greatness  but  of  future  duties, 
and  in  the  joy  of  the  occasion  we  must  not  forget 
our  responsibilities.  Regenerated  by  liberty, 
may  we  seek  in  freedom  and  order  the  secret  of 
strength,  and  endeavor  to  reconcile  church  and 
state." 

This  last  endeavor  was  indeed  a  difficult  one, 


34      OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

not  because  of  lack  of  sincere  desire  and  effort 
on  the  part  of  the  king  and  his  ministers,  but  be- 
cause of  the  attitude  of  the  Pope  and  the  ec- 
clesiastics. Pius  IX  had  begun  his  career  with 
liberal  views,  and  had  contributed  not  a  little  to 
the  realization  of  a  free  and  united  Italy.  How- 
ever when  it  came  to  giving  up  every  vestige  of 
his  temporal  power,  he  became  a  reactionary  and 
even  refused  to  receive  the  messengers  of  Victor 
Emanuel  II  whom  he  sent  to  the  Pope,  when  the 
king  took  up  his  residence  at  the  Quirinal,  to  de- 
clare his  personal  allegiance  to  the  Church  and 
to  congratulate  Pius  IX  on  so  long  occupying 
the  Pontifical  Chair. 

The  disdain  with  which  this  messenger,  and 
others  who  came  on  a  similar  errand,  were  re- 
ceived at  the  Vatican,  widened  the  breach  be- 
tween church  and  state.  The  Pope  forbade  his 
followers  to  vote  in  the  elections,  or  to  have 
anything  to  do  with  the  new  government.  As  a 
result  the  people  of  Rome  who  voted  were  abso- 
lutely unanimous  when  they  renounced  all  alle- 
giance to  the  Pope  as  a  temporal  ruler,  and  ac- 
knowledged, in  affairs  of  state,  their  fealty  to 
the  King  alone.  Of  course  the  vote  would  have 
been  far  from  unanimous  if  the  clerical  party 
had  voted,   but  they  declared   that   they   were 


ITALY  TO-DAY  35 

"overawed  by  60,000  bayonets  and  that  any  ap- 
peal to  the  ballot  box  was  a  farce." 

This  stand-off  attitude  toward  civic  affairs 
has  been  maintained  by  the  successors  of  Pius  IX, 
who  still  keep  up  the  fiction  that  they  are  prison- 
ers in  the  Vatican,  but,  as  a  recent  writer  has 
said,  "If  the  Vatican  is  a  prison,  the  door  is 
locked  from  the  inside,  and  the  Pope  keeps  the 
the  key.  It  is  a  very  luxurious  prison,  with 
its  11,000  rooms,  its  museums,  its  libraries,  and 
galleries  with  their  priceless  treasures,  and  with 
expensive  gardens  and  grounds.  It  is  a  palace  of 
delights.  .  .  .  The  Pope  had  his  little  army  of 
some  600  gaily  dressed  Swiss ;  he  has  his  private 
post  and  telegraph  arrangements ;  he  has  his  am- 
bassadors accredited  to  him  from  foreign  Catho- 
lic powers,  and  he  has — the  Vatican." 

Of  late  years,  since  the  genii  of  socialism  have 
escaped  from  the  bottle  in  which  they  were  so 
long  corked  up,  and  have  spread  throughout  Italy 
in  such  a  threatening  cloud,  the  non  expedit  laws 
which  issued  from  the  Vatican  have  been  some- 
what modified,  and  to  defeat  syndicalism  and 
the  more  violent  forms  of  socialism,  Catholics 
have  been  allowed  to  vote,  and  Catholic  nobles 
have  vigorously  electioneered. 

Pius   IX   was   succeeded  by   the   astute   and 


36      OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

learned  Leo  XIII,  considered  by  his  enemies  a 
wily  intriguer,  and  by  his  friends  a  brilliant 
statesman,  who,  though  he  was  68  years  old  when 
he  was  crowned  with  'the  triple  crown  of  the 
Pope,  exercised  his  office  far  longer  than  most  of 
his  predecessors. 

He  in  turn  was  followed  by  the  gentle  ecclesi- 
astic whose  name  "Pius"  was  acknowledged  by 
all  to  indicate  his  character.  He  was  a  devout, 
godly  man  undoubtedly,  but  narrow  and  intensely 
reactionary  in  his  theological  views,  who  did  his 
utmost  to  destroy  Modernism  in  the  Church,  but 
who  maintained  an  increasingly  friendly  atti- 
tude toward  the  civil  rulers  of  Italy.  In  spite  of 
the  "Prisoner-of-the- Vatican"  fiction,  which  he 
seemed  to  feel  it  necessary  to  maintain,  he  and 
his  advisers  seemed  to  accept  the  fact  that  the 
temporal  power  of  the  papacy  was  forever  at  an 
end. 

The  character  and  policy  of  the  present  Pope 
Benedict  are  too  little  known  to  allow  character- 
ization here,  but  he  is  considered,  by  those  who 
know  him,  to  be  a  wise  and  friendly  ecclesiastic, 
whose  efforts  for  peace  have  shown  a  kindly 
heart,  though  the  exigencies  of  the  world  war 
made  those  efforts  fruitless,  and  sometimes  laid 
him  open  to  the  charge  of  pro-Germanism  by  the 
Allies. 


ITALY  TO-DAY  n 

To  return  to  Victor  Emanuel — he  reigned 
wisely  and  well  for  nearly  thirty  years  as  a 
strictly  constitutional  monarch,  "preserving 
amidst  the  splendors  of  a  great  court  the  simple 
tastes  of  his  early  life."  He  died  at  Rome  of  a 
fever  on  the  9th  of  January,  1878,  and  was  bur- 
ied in  the  Pantheon.  The  open  dome  lets  in  the 
light  and  air  of  heaven  upon  his  magnificent 
tomb. 

Here,  beside  Raphael  and  other  distinguished 
Italians,  he  rests  in  his  long,  last  sleep.  His 
homely,  democratic  ways,  which  so  endeared  him 
to  his  people,  will  long  be  remembered.  A  well- 
known  writer  tells  the  story  of  a  countryman 
who  was  trying  to  lift  his  wagon  out  of  the  mire, 
when  he  saw  a  strong,  burly  stranger  passing, 
and  said,  "I  should  think  you  might  lend  a  hand 
in  lifting  this  wagon."  "Certainly,"  replied  the 
stranger,  as  he  put  his  shoulder  to  the  wheel  and 
lifted  the  vehicle  on  to  level  ground.  At  this 
moment  a  traveller  coming  along  made  a  humble 
obeisance,  and  the  rustic,  greatly  humiliated,  dis- 
covered that  his  friend  in  need  had  been  the  king 
of  Italy. 

King  Victor's  son  and  successor,  Humbert  I, 
carried  out  the  wise,  progressive,  democratic 
policy  of  his  father,  and  when,  after  a  reign 
of  some  twenty-two  years,  he  was  assassinated 


38      OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

by  the  anarchist,  Angelo  Bresci,  the  grief  of  the 
people  over  his  violent  and  untimely  end  was 
scarcely  less  than  that  exhibited  at  the  death  of 
his  father. 

The  present  King  succeeded  Humbert  I  with 
the  title  Victor  Emanuel  III,  and  so  far  has 
proved  worthy  of  the  noble  ancestors  who  bore 
it  before  him.  He  was  born  in  1869,  and,  as 
Prince  of  Naples  before  his  father's  death,  for 
many  years  held  his  court  in  that  immense  red 
palace  which  is  so  familiar  to  the  thousands  of 
American  travellers  who  have  sailed  through  the 
blue  Gulf  of  Naples,  into  the  harbor  of  that 
commanding  and  picturesque  city. 

It  seemed  strange  to  many  that  the  Prince  of 
Naples  should  seek  a  wife  in  the  little  principality 
of  Montenegro,  and  should  go  over  the  forbid- 
ding Black  Mountains  to  the  provincial  capital 
of  Cettinje,  which  is  hardly  larger  than  an  Amer- 
ican village,  to  find  a  bride.  Any  one  who  has 
climbed  the  interminable  zigzags  which  lead  over 
the  precipitous  mountains  from  Cattaro  on  the 
Dalmatian  coast  to  the  sparsely  settled  Monte- 
negrin territory,  which  for  the  most  part  is  wild, 
forbidding  and  desolate  in  the  extreme,  would 
consider  it  the  last  place  to  which  the  prospective 
monarch  of  a  great  country  would  go  to  seek  a 
wife.     However  this  was  a  love  match.     Prince 


ITALY  TO-DAY  39 

Victor  Emanuel  and  Princess  Helene  did  not 
meet  first  in  Cettinje,  but  in  Venice,  at  the  Exhibi- 
tion of  Fine  Arts,  and  he  could  scarcely  have 
chosen  one  better  fitted  to  be  the  Queen  of  Italy. 

Her  common  sense  and  kindness  have  endeared 
her  to  her  people,  as  the  same  qualities  have  made 
her  husband  popular  with  all  classes.  The  fol- 
lowing story  is  told  of  the  Queen  as  illustrating 
her  goodness  of  heart  and  her  spirit  of  courtesy. 
It  is  said  that  at  one  time  some  ladies  called  upon 
her  when  she  was  busy  with  her  children,  and 
she  was  obliged  to  keep  them  waiting  a  little 
while.  When  she  at  last  received  them,  she 
apologized  courteously  for  the  delay,  and  was 
afterwards  taken  to  task  by  some  of  her  advisers, 
who  told  her  that  it  was  not  for  her  to  apologize ; 
she  must  not  forget  that  she  was  the  Queen. 
To  which  she  replied,  "Yes,  but  I  do  not  wish  to 
forget  that  before  I  was  a  queen  I  was  a  lady." 
It  is  this  spirit  of  courteous  kindness  that  has 
greatly  helped  to  endear  her  to  her  people. 

Having  told  briefly  the  story  of  the  kings  and 
popes,  what  can  we  say  of  the  progress  of  the 
common  people,  since  Italy  became  a  free  and 
united  nation?  It  is  largely  the  purpose  of  the 
rest  of  this  book  to  tell  their  story,  to  show  how 
they  live,  what  advances  they  have  made,  what 
obstacles  in  their  upward  march  they  have  met, 


4o      OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

what  leaders  in  literature,  art  and  science  they 
look  up  to,  why  so  many  of  them  seek  a  new 
home  in  our  own  land,  and  what  qualities  of  brain 
and  brawn  they  bring  with  them  to  America. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten,  as  has  been  said  be- 
fore, that  Italy  is  practically  a  young  nation, 
born  indeed  many  centuries  ago,  but  reborn 
within  the  lifetime  of  men  who  are  now  only  in 
middle  age.  Those  who  do  not  yet  consider 
themselves  old,  heard  the  triumphal  shouts  on  the 
twentieth  of  September,  1870,  when  the  breach 
was  made  in  the  Porta  Pia,  and  the  army  of 
United  Italy  entered  the  Eternal  City.  The  con- 
temporaries of  Cavour,  Mazzini  and  Garibaldi 
are  still  living,  and  some  of  them  are  prominent 
leaders  in  Italian  politics  to-day. 

It  is  not  fair  to  compare  the  progress  of  a 
country  so  young  in  its  national  life  with  a  coun- 
try like  Great  Britain,  which  has  enjoyed  cen- 
turies of  stable  government  and  constitutional 
liberty,  or  even  with  a  country  like  our  own 
which,  in  addition  to  unbounded  natural  re- 
sources, has  for  nearly  a  century  and  a  half  had 
a  comparatively  pure  national  government,  and 
an  uninterrupted  succession  of  patriotic  and  con- 
scientious presidents. 

When  we  remember  the  practical  youth  of 
Italy  as  a  nation,  when  we  recall  the  tremendous 


ITALY  TO-DAY  41 

burdens  imposed  by  the  former  regime  in  the 
shape  of  high  taxes,  illiteracy  and  constant  strug- 
gles with  the  dominant  church,  it  seems  wonder- 
ful that  the  kingdom  has  made  such  rapid  and 
substantial  progress.  Cities  like  Rome  have 
been  practically  rebuilt.  Miles  of  slums,  as  in 
Naples,  have  been  abolished,  though  there  are 
other  miles  waiting  the  destructive  hand  of  en- 
lightened progress.  Tunnels  have  pierced  the 
Alps.  Railroads  have  gridironed  the  country, 
north  and  east  and  south  and  west.  Tens  of 
thousands  of  schools  have  been  established.  The 
suffrage  has  been  extended,  until  now,  perhaps, 
it  is  as  nearly  universal  as  in  most  democratic 
countries.  Marshes  which  have  bred  malaria  for 
thousands  of  years  have  been  drained.  Canals 
have  been  dug  and  aqueducts  built  at  tremendous 
cost. 

Together  with  this  material  advance  the  in- 
tellectual progress  of  the  nation  has  kept  pace 
with  these  more  tangible  forms  of  growth.  Arts 
and  letters  have  flourished.  In  some  lines  of  sci- 
ence and  invention  Italy  has  led  the  way.  Still 
much,  very  much  remains  to  be  done  before  Italy 
can  fully  take  the  place  to  which  she  is  appar- 
ently destined  by  Providence.  What  has  been 
accomplished,  and  what  remains  yet  to  be  done 
for  the  people,  what  they  are  to-day,  and  what 


42      OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

they  may  become  in  their  own  land,  or  in  the 
newer  Italy  across  the  sea,  what  effect  the  world 
war  may  have  on  Italy's  fortunes ;  these  matters 
must  be  the  subjects  of  succeeding  chapters. 


CHAPTER  V 

PROGRESS 

What  about  the  common  people?  How  has 
the  overthrow  of  the  Bourbons,  and  the  expul- 
sion of  the  Austrians,  and  the  abolition  of  the 
temporal  power  of  the  Pope,  affected  the  mass 
of  the  people?  Has  free  Italy  made  a  free  peo- 
ple? Has  united  Italy  united  the  sons  of  the  soil 
and  the  workshop  for  their  own  betterment  and 
uplift?  In  a  large  and  general  way  these  ques- 
tions must  be  answered  in  the  affirmative.  It  is 
true  that  there  are  problems  yet  to  be  solved,  and 
Italy  has  yet  leagues  and  leagues  to  go,  before 
she  reaches  the  goal  which  her  best  patriots  have 
in  view.  Nevertheless  when  we  consider  the  vast 
progress  which  has  already  been  made,  when  we 
remember  that  New  Italy  is  not  yet  half  a  cen- 
tury old,  when  we  remember  the  Hills  Difficult 
which  have  already  been  surmounted,  and  the 
Slough  of  Despond  out  of  which  she  has  emerged, 
we  can  believe  that  nothing  is  impossible,  and 
that  Italy  may  yet  take  her  assured  place  in  the 
forefront  of  the  civilized  nations  of  the  world. 

43 


44      OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

All  these  conditions  and  changes  for  the  better 
have  a  distinct  and  important  bearing  upon  the 
American  of  the  future.  I  do  not  believe  that 
the  tide  of  emigration  from  Italy  to  the  United 
States  will  slacken  for  many  a  decade  to  come,  ex- 
cept temporarily  after  the  world  war,  and  every- 
thing that  is  done  to  purify  the  fountain  at  its 
source  will  purify  the  stream  that  will  pour  with 
constantly  increasing  volume  into  America.  It 
is  cheering,  then,  to  turn  for  a  little  to  the  re- 
markable social  and  industrial  progress  which 
Italy  has  made  since,  defeated  and  broken- 
hearted, the  great  grandfather  of  the  present 
king  renounced  his  royal  throne  and  fled  as  an 
exile  to  Spain. 

To  begin  with  the  soil,  the  basis  of  all  wealth 
and  industry.  Writing  a  few  years  ago,  Bolton 
King  and  Thomas  Okey  in  their  "Italy  of  To- 
Day"  said: 

"It  may  seem  extravagant  to  talk  of  a  revival 
in  the  present  pass  of  Italian  agriculture.  When 
the  income  of  a  poor  farmer  or  regular  laborer's 
family  seldom  ranges  beyond  twenty-five  pounds 
a  year,  when  the  exhausted  land  produces  less 
than  half  a  crop  of  wheat;  when,  through  large 
districts,  the  barest  elements  of  modern  agricul- 
ture are  unknown,  when  a  vicious  land-system 
and  dearth  of  capital  half  strangle  progress,  it 


PROGRESS  45 

is  hard  at  first  to  believe  that  there  is  any  dawn  of 
better  things.  And  yet  there  is  a  revival  almost 
as  notable  as  that  which  has  awakened  the  coun- 
try's industry  to  new  life.  Emigration  and  the 
increasing  intercourse  with  the  towns,  have 
broken  up  the  old  benumbing  apathy  of  the  peas- 
ant. His  standard  of  comfort  has  arisen;  his 
clothes  and  furniture  are  better;  shoes  are  worn 
by  all,  where  shoes  were  unknown  forty  years 
ago ;  the  women  wear  hats  and  earrings,  and  ape 
the  fashions  of  the  town ;  tobacco  takes  the  place 
of  snuff,  and  almost  every  peasant  has  his  occa- 
sional luxury  at  the  cafe  or  tavern.  Methods  of 
agriculture  steadily  improve.  Even  at  the  time 
of  the  Inchiesta  agraria  the  improved  stock  and 
implements,  the  better  rotation  of  crops,  the  in- 
creased use  of  manure,  were  making  themselves 
felt,  and  since  then  the  advance  has  been  much 
more  rapid." 

The  improvements  of  which  these  authors 
write  have  been  gathering  momentum  during  the 
last  few  years,  and  the  picture  could  now  be 
painted  in  much  brighter  colors. 

And  yet,  as  the  observant  traveller  gazes  out 
of  the.  car  window,  or  drives  through  the  fra- 
grant lanes  in  the  early  days  of  the  lovely  Ital- 
ian spring,  he  need  not  be  an  agricultural  expert 
to  see  that  the  laborers  on  the  soil  still  literally 


46      OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

have  a  hard  row  to  hoe.  In  many  parts  of  Italy 
he  will  see  comparatively  few  horses  pulling  plow 
or  harrow,  but  often  great,  white,  wide-horned 
oxen,  sometimes  four  pairs  hitched  to  a  plow,  and 
he  will  compare  their  slow  and  toilsome  progress 
through  the  furrow  with  the  steam  plows  of  our 
own  prairies,  that  throw  up  a  score  of  furrows  at 
a  time,  and  break  up  fifty  acres  in  a  day.  More 
often,  perhaps,  he  will  see  a  row  of  laborers,  men 
and  women  alike,  in  a  long  line,  with  pointed, 
heart-shaped  spades,  toilsomely  digging  up  the 
soil  by  hand,  and,  when  he  remembers  the  pitia- 
ble pay  which  this  back-breaking  work  brings  in, 
he  will  perhaps  come  to  the  conclusion  that,  after 
all,  little  progress  has  been  made,  and  that  the  lot 
of  the  Italian  agricultural  laborer  is  the  most  un- 
enviable of  all. 

But  progress  is  shown  not  by  the  actual  posi- 
tion where  one  finds  himself,  but  by  the  distance 
he  has  come.  We  must  look  not  at  the  present 
only,  but  at  the  past,  to  see  whether  the  laborer 
is  on  the  up-hill  road,  and  this  view  leaves  no 
doubt  that  he  is  facing  upward  as  well  as  plod- 
ding onward.  The  old  rhyme,  written  doubtless 
by  some  English  aristocrat,  in  order  to  make  his 
tenants  contented  with  their  lot,  ran  as  follows: 

"Honest  John  Tomkins,  the  hedger  and  ditcher, 
Though  he  always  was  poor,  never  wished  to  be  richer." 


PROGRESS  47 

This  rhyme  is  certainly  not  true  of  the  Italian 
laborer.  Before  the  era  of  United  Italy  he  was 
little  better  than  a  serf,  and  such  is  his  condition 
in  some  parts  of  Sicily  to-day,  but  for  the  most 
part,  he  is  no  longer  the  man  with  the  muck-rake, 
but  has  seen  the  crown  of  prosperity  and  prog- 
ress above  his  head,  even  though  he  has  not  yet 
been  able  fully  to  grasp  it. 

One  long  step  in  advance  has  been  taken  in 
making  agriculture  a  comparatively  healthy  and 
safe  pursuit.  What  life  could  be  more  free  from 
disease  and  danger,  my  reader  will  ask,  than  that 
of  the  farmer?  But  it  was  not  so  a  few  years 
ago  in  Italy.  In  many  parts  the  ploughed  field 
was  then  as  dangerous  as  a  battlefield.  A  dozen 
years  since  a  careful  author  wrote,  "Malaria 
slays  its  twenty  thousand  victims  every  year,  and 
keeps  desolate  huge  tracts  of  the  richest  land  in 
Italy."  But  about  that  time,  it  was  discovered 
that  the  pestiferous  mosquito  was  alone  responsi- 
ble for  spreading  malaria. 

In  the  worst  parts  of  the  Campagna  it  was 
found  by  intrepid  experimenters  that  one  could 
live  and  thrive  in  a  mosquito-proof  hut.  Since 
then  this  scourge  of  the  Campagna  and  of  many 
other  parts  of  Italy,  has  been  largely  conquered, 
and  it  is  at  least  as  safe  to  belong  to  the  army  of 
agricultural  laborers,  as  to  be  even  in  peace  times 


48      OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

in  the  army  of  King  Emanuel  III.  The  same 
wonderful  discovery  that  made  it  possible  to  dig 
the  Panama  Canal,  has  made  the  low  lands  of 
Italy  comparatively  safe.  The  mosquito  that 
dismayed  and  conquered  De  Lesseps  has  in  its 
turn  been  conquered  by  scientists.  Millions  of 
acres  have  consequently  been  reclaimed  from  the 
marshes,  and  are  now  rejoicing  in  the  olive,  or- 
ange and  fig  as  in  the  palmiest  days  of  Rome. 

When  we  think  how  the  Campagna  of  Rome 
two  thousand  years  ago  was  a  garden  spot  of  the 
world,  how  it  was  covered  with  beautiful  villas, 
was  fragrant  with  flowers,  shaded  with  umbra- 
geous trees,  and  filled  with  vineyards  and  orange 
groves,  how  it  produced  the  finest  fruits  and 
vegetables;  when  we  remember  how,  for  hun- 
dreds of  years  past,  it  has  been  almost  as  unin- 
habitable as  the  desert  of  Sahara,  we  can  see 
what  remains  to  be  done,  and  understand  some  of 
the  possibilities  of  Italian  agriculture. 

Other  great  districts  containing  millions  of 
acres  can  be  made  fruitful  by  irrigation,  and  the 
re-foresting  of  the  hillsides  will  prevent  the  dis- 
astrous floods  which  have  destroyed  the  industry 
of  other  parts  of  Italy. 

Another  peculiar  danger  of  Italian  agriculture, 
in  which  many  countries  do  not  share,  is  the 
hail  storm,  and  we  are  told  that  the  Hail  Insur- 


PROGRESS  49 

ance  Societies  have  charged  as  high  as  five  dol- 
lars per  acre  to  insure  the  vineyards  against  dis- 
aster from  this  source.  It  would  seem  as  though 
this  were  a  visitation  from  heaven,  and  could  not 
be  guarded  against  by  the  skill  of  man,  but  the 
authorities  I  have  already  quoted  tell  us  that 
within  the  last  few  years  experiments  of  dis- 
charging cannon  loaded  with  a  special  pyrite  pow- 
der at  an  advancing  hail  cloud  have  been  exten- 
sively practised  in  northern  Italy,  and  with 
satisfactory  results.  "Whatever  may  be  the 
scientific  explanation,  it  seems  fairly  well  estab- 
lished that  the  discharge  almost  invariably  brings 
down  the  hail  in  the  form  of  fine  snow.  It  has 
been  proposed  to  make  the  establishment  of  sta- 
tions of  these  cannoni  grandinifiigi  compulsory." 
The  progress  of  manufactures  has  been  much 
more  marked  than  the  progress  of  agriculture, 
particularly  in  the  north,  where  the  high  duties 
imposed  by  the  government  on  all  manufactured 
goods  imported  from  abroad  have  protected,  to  an 
unreasonable  extent,  as  many  think,  the  products 
of  the  factories,  the  rolling  mills  and  the  machine 
shops  of  Turin  and  Milan  and  other  cities  of 
northern  Italy.  The  complaints  of  the  south 
against  being  taxed  for  the  benefit  of  the  north 
have  been  long  and  loud,  and  the  government  has 
now  made  concessions  in  the  way  of  reduced 


50      OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

taxation  on  manufacturing  plants  to  Naples  and 
that  vicinity  which  have  in  some  degree  allayed 
the  clamor. 

But  all  this  improvement  in  agriculture  and 
the  mechanic  arts  would  hardly  make  a  people 
great  and  prosperous  unless  education  went  hand 
in  hand  with  material  improvement.  In  this  re- 
spect, too,  Italy  has  made  strides  with  seven- 
league  boots,  though  she  has  not  as  yet  by  any 
means  caught  up  with  the  most  advanced  coun- 
tries. Still  she  had  a  long  way  to  go,  since,  be- 
fore the  days  of  United  Italy,  sixty,  eighty  and, 
in  some  sections,  ninety  per  cent  of  the  people 
were  illiterate.  In  the  Papal  States  and  in  south- 
ern Italy  it  was  the  exceptional  man  who  could 
read  or  write.  Now,  take  it  the  country  over, 
only  forty  per  cent  of  the  people  are  illiterate,  even 
including  the  most  benighted  parts  of  Italy,  while 
in  some  sections,  as  in  Turin,  there  is  practically 
no  illiteracy. 

Formerly  the  schools  were  all  under  the  con- 
trol of  the  priests.  Poor  and  inadequate  they 
were  indeed,  except  for  a  few  of  the  wealthy 
classes.  Now,  education  is  a  matter  of  national 
concern,  and  excellent  laws  for  compulsory 
schooling,  up  to  the  age  of  fourteen,  have  been 
passed.  If  the  resources  of  the  country  were 
equal  to  the  intentions  of  the  rulers,  there  would 


PROGRESS  51 

soon  be  no  child  in  Italy  who  did  not  know  at  least 
his  three  R's.  But,  alas,  many  parts  of  Italy  are 
still  desperately  poor.  The  immense  appropria- 
tions for  the  army  and  navy,  which  the  Italians 
have  thought  necessary  to  sustain  their  national 
dignity  even  before  the  recent  war,  left  com- 
paratively little  in  the  national  treasury  for  edu- 
cation, and  many  rural  communities  are  abso- 
lutely too  poverty-stricken  to  afford  a  decent 
school.  Universal  disarmament,  even  if  partial, 
would  greatly  advance  Italian  education. 

Of  late  years,  however,  the  smaller  communi- 
ties have  been  combining  their  resources,  thus 
obtaining  better  schools  and  better  teachers,  and 
the  idea  of  Universal  Education  is  constantly  be- 
ing approached,  though  it  still  seems  to  beckon 
from  afar. 

As  to  religious  education,  ethics  and  morals  are 
taught  in  the  government  schools,  but  religion  is 
left  to  the  ecclesiastical  authorities,  who,  how- 
ever, have  free  access  to  the  schools,  to  teach  their 
dogmas  at  certain  hours,  an  instruction  which,  I 
understand,  is  given  gratuitously. 

When  one  sees  the  crowd  of  ragamuffins  that 
swarm  in  every  street  and  alley  of  Naples  and 
some  other  cities  of  the  south,  at  every  hour  of 
the  day  and  night,  one  is  tempted  to  wonder  if 
compulsory  education  is  not,  after  all,  a  farce. 


52      OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

Undoubtedly  it  is  in  many  sections,  but  when  in 
other  cities  one  sees  crowds  of  rosy-faced  chil- 
dren, many  of  them  patched  but  clean,  going  to, 
or  returning  from,  school,  with  their  slates  and 
their  satchels  of  books,  one  realizes  the  progress 
which  a  half  century  has  made,  and  also  the  fur- 
ther fact  that  Italy,  though  united,  is  not  yet 
homogeneous,  and  that  what  is  true  of  one  part 
of  the  peninsula  may  be  utterly  untrue  of  another 
part.  The  man  who  has  studied  only  the  south  is 
ill-prepared  to  write  about  the  north,  and  vice 
versa. 

Nevertheless  the  same  leaven  is  working  in  all 
parts  of  the  kingdom,  and  some  day  the  sunny 
south  will  doubtless  catch  up,  in  the  matter  of 
education,  with  the  more  progressive  north.  It 
is  even  now  true  that  any  child  in  Italy,  who 
really  desires  an  education,  and  is  willing  to  work 
out  his  sums  like  Abraham  Lincoln,  by  the  light 
of  a  fire,  and  on  the  back  of  a  shovel,  need  not 
grow  up  without  at  least  the  rudiments  of  an 
education. 


CHAPTER  VI 
Italy's  ideals 

In  considering  the  qualities  of  a  nation  that 
had  long  been  sending  a  third  of  a  million  of  its 
people  to  our  shores  every  year  before  the  world 
war  began,  it  is  of  even  more  importance  to  con- 
sider their  ideals  and  aspirations,  their  general 
trend  of  character,  than  to  know  their  history 
and  their  actual  achievements.  Crossing  the 
Atlantic  will  not  alter  the  character  of  a  people. 
The  salt  sea  breezes  will  not  blow  away  their 
ideals.  It  may  fairly  be  said  that  the  ideals  of 
the  Italians  are  not  only  unity  and  freedom  and 
progress,  as  we  have  already  seen  from  their 
history,  but  democracy  and  cooperation  for  a  bet- 
ter social  state. 

Of  course  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  every  poor 
Italian  emigrant  consciously  cherishes  these 
ideals;  he  may  theoretically  scarcely  know  the 
difference  between  a  democracy  and  a  monarchy, 
and  he  may  never  have  reasoned  about  "social 
uplift,"  but,  nevertheless,  the  desire  for  these 
things  is  in  his  blood,  and  under  favorable  cir- 

53 


54      OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

cumstances  will  assert  itself.  The  peasants  re- 
sponded as  readily  as  the  upper  classes  to  the  fiery 
eloquence  of  Mazzini,  to  the  bold  leadership  of 
Garibaldi,  and,  so  far  as  they  had  a  voice,  sup- 
ported the  wise  efforts  for  freedom  and  unity  of 
Cavour. 

It  is  true  that  republicanism,  as  a  cult,  has  a 
very  slight  hold  on  the  Italians.  They  are  sat- 
isfied with  their  king  and  his  court,  even  though 
they  may  growl  at  the  nearly  a  million  dollars  a 
year  which  is  given  to  him  as  an  allowance.  But 
they  approve  of  the  monarchy,  mainly  because  it 
is,  so  to  speak,  a  republican  monarchy.  It  is  in- 
conceivable that  a  Bomba,  as  Ferdinand  I  was 
called,  because  he  was  said  to  rule  his  people  with 
explosive  bombs,  could  ever  again  sit  on  the 
throne  of  Naples.  The  democratic,  simple, 
homely  ways  of  their  kings,  since  New  Italy  was 
born,  have  always  commended  them  to  their  peo- 
ple, and  even  the  passing  traveller  notices  the 
self-respecting,  independent,  though  not  unge- 
nial,  air  of  the  average  Italian.  There  is  noth- 
ing of  cringing  servility  about  him.  He  does 
not  seem  ready  to  lick  your  boots  for  a  penny,  as 
do  some  of  the  lower  classes  in  Europe.  In  many 
an  English  shop,  if  you  make  a  small  purchase, 
the  obsequious  merchant  will  say,  "Thank  you, 
thank  you,  thank  you,"  a  dozen  times  before  you 


ITALY'S  IDEALS  55 

can  get  out  of  the  door.  It  is  impossible  that  any 
man  should  feel  as  grateful  to  you  for  spending 
a  sixpence  as  such  words  indicate,  and  you  at  once 
doubt  his  sincerity  as  well  as  resent  his  manner. 

The  Italian  peasant  will  greet  you  politely,  but 
without  any  shade  of  servility,  as  though  he,  too, 
were  a  man  and  a  brother. 

Alas,  on  our  side  of  the  water,  in  the  second 
generation,  this  independence  may  degenerate 
into  impudence,  but  it  is  at  least  more  in  accord- 
ance with  American  ideals  than  a  toad-eating 
habit  that  worships  a  lord  or  a  bishop. 

This  democratic  spirit  has  been  fostered  by 
the  privileges  of  the  suffrage,  which  is  as  nearly 
universal  in  Italy  as  in  any  modern  country. 
Property  tests  and  educational  tests  have  been 
practically  done  away  with,  and  any  citizen  over 
twenty-one  years  of  age  can  vote.  It  is  true  that 
if  he  is  under  thirty  years  of  age,  and  has  not 
served  in  the  army,  he  cannot  vote  unless  he  can 
read  and  write,  but  there  are  so  few  who  come 
under  this  category  that  they  hardly  make  an 
exception  to  the  rule  of  universal  suffrage. 

Women  have  not  yet  attained  the  right  of  the 
ballot,  and  this  is  true  of  every  other  European 
country  except  Finland,  Great  Britain,  and  Ger- 
many, but  it  would  not  be  strange  if  Italy  should 
be  the  next  large  nation  to  bestow  the  ballot  upon 


56      OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

her  daughters.  There  are  two  strong  Woman's 
Suffrage  organizations  in  Italy,  which  have  not 
adopted  militant  tactics  but  which,  on  this  ac- 
count, are  all  the  more  effective,  and  likely  soon 
to  succeed. 

One  of  these  parties  is  composed  of  devout 
Catholic  women  who  are  eager  for  the  suffrage  as 
soon  as  the  Holy  Father  of  the  Vatican  gives  his 
consent.  The  other  party  demands  it  with  or 
without  the  pontifical  blessing,  and  I  am  told  they 
are  making  rapid  headway  in  their  propaganda. 
As  soon  as  they  convince  the  majority  of  the 
Italian  people  that  woman's  suffrage  is  wise  and 
necessary,  they  will  doubtless  gain  their  end,  for 
in  these  days  the  Italians  have  a  way  of  secur- 
ing what  they  set  their  hearts  upon. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  the  evils  often  con- 
nected with  universal  suffrage  are  not  unknown 
in  Italy,  and  at  times  bribery  and  corruption  have 
been  unblushing  and  almost  unrebuked.  In  the 
general  election  of  1909,  we  are  told,  the  charge 
of  wholesale  corruption  was  made  "in  the  cham- 
ber, and  the  evidence  given  before  the  elections' 
commission  read  like  scenes  from  a  comic  opera. 
The  absent,  the  illiterate,  the  dead,  voted  in  hun- 
dreds. The  trick  known  in  Sicily  as  fare  il  cop- 
pino,  which  consists  in  thrusting  enough  forged 
papers  into  the  ballot  boxes  before  they  are  sealed 


ITALY'S  IDEALS  57 

to  ensure  a  candidate's  return,  had  been  freely 
practised." 

In  order  to  make  sure  that  the  goods  are  deliv- 
ered, it  is  said  that  the  briber  is  accustomed  to 
give  to  the  bribed  one  half  of  a  bank  note  before, 
and  the  corresponding  half,  after  the  vote  has 
been  recorded,  and  since  the  Italian  voter  has  to 
write  his  name  on  the  ballot,  a  piece  of  blotting 
paper  is  given  him,  on  which  he  has  to  show  the 
impress  of  the  candidate's  name,  to  prove  that  he 
has  voted  for  the  candidate  of  the  man  who  has 
paid  him  for  his  ballot. 

But  let  not  Americans  hold  up  their  hands  in 
holy  horror,  or  at  least  self-righteous  horror,  for, 
alas!  repeaters  and  bribers  and  ballot-box  staff- 
ers have  not  been  unknown  on  our  side  of  the 
Atlantic.  We  can  only  rejoice  that  a  quickened 
civic  conscience  every  year  makes  such  corrup- 
tion more  rare  and  less  tolerable,  and  I  am  glad 
to  read  on  the  authority  of  a  well-informed 
writer,  that  "the  scandals  of  1909  in  Italy  invoked 
a  healthy  disgust  among  all  shades  of  opinion, 
and  a  genuine  desire  for  drastic  remedies." 

The  power  to  combine  and  cooperate  for  the 
public  good  is  another  sign  of  a  sensible  and  virile 
people,  and  this  quality  the  Italians  have  in  a 
marked  measure.  Italian  unity  could  never  have 
been  achieved  had  this  not  been  true.     The  in- 


58      OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

terests  of  the  north  and  south,  of  Sicily  and  Pied- 
mont, are  so  diverse  in  many  respects,  that  only 
by  a  willingness  to  sacrifice  something  for  the 
general  welfare,  has  the  history  of  the  last  fifty 
years  been  made  possible. 

The  contrast  between  the  federated  states  of 
North  America  and  the  republics  of  northern 
South  America,  with  their  constant  revolutions 
and  incessant  turmoils  is  largely  a  matter  of 
racial  ability  to  unite  and  cooperate  for  the  com- 
mon good.  The  United  States  of  North  Amer- 
ica have  been  an  established  and  potent  factor  in 
the  history  of  the  world  for  more  than  a  hundred 
years.  The  United  States  of  South  America 
seems  as  far  from  realization  as  when  Pizarro 
murdered  Atahualpa  in  his  palace  at  Cuzco.  In 
this  respect  the  Italians  seem  to  pattern  more 
nearly  after  the  Anglo-Saxon  races  than  after 
their  brothers  of  other  Latin  nations. 

This  ability  to  unite  their  interests  has  resulted 
in  the  multiplication  of  all  kinds  of  cooperative 
enterprises.  People's  banks,  savings  banks, 
friendly  societies  of  all  sorts  flourish  in  Italy. 
There  are  cooperative  dairies  and  bakeries,  and 
agricultural  unions  and  all  kinds  of  union  ef- 
forts to  benefit  different  classes  of  the  people, 
which,  for  the  most  part,  are  wisely  conceived 
and  ably  manned.     The  dairy  business  of  Italy 


ITALY'S  IDEALS  59 

has  been  vastly  benefited,  to  mention  but  one  in- 
stance, by  this  ability  of  the  Italians  to  cooperate, 
and  Italy  before  the  war  sent  its  butter  and  cheese 
by  parcels'  post  to  distant  and  less  progressive 
countries,  like  Spain  and  Egypt,  reaping  a  large 
profit  thereby. 

It  is  to  be  expected  that  among  people  who 
have  thus  learned  to  combine  their  efforts,  trades 
unions,  or  whatever  corresponds  to  them,  should 
be  strong.  There  is  probably  no  city  in  the  world 
where  they  have  the  ability  to  dictate  their  own 
terms  as  in  Rome.  The  traveller  sometimes  has 
occasion  to  realize  this  fact  to  his  annoyance  and 
discomfort. 

In  the  first  chapter  of  this  book  I  alluded  to  a 
strike  which  I  once  witnessed  in  Rome.  For  two 
days  the  strikers  were  able  absolutely  to  stop  the 
wheels  of  industry.  No  traveller  could  reach 
his  hotel  by  bus  or  tram-car  or  public  carriage. 
No  one  could  get  away  if  he  had  heavy  baggage 
to  move,  for  no  porters  or  draymen  were  on  duty. 
The  baker's  rolls,  which  constitute  the  main 
portion  of  the  Italian  breakfast,  were  hard  and 
dry  and  almost  uneatable,  since,  toward  the  end 
of  the  strike,  they  had  been  out  of  the  oven  for 
fully  three  days.  The  streets  were  littered  with 
paper  and  rubbish  of  every  kind,  and  looked  most 
disreputable,  for  no  street  cleaner  wielded  his 


60      OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

broom,  or  flushed  the  gutters  with  the  water 
which  is  everywhere  abundant  in  Rome.  Even 
the  flower  sellers  on  the  Spanish  Stairs  deserted 
their  posts,  and  no  gallant  could  buy  so  much  as 
a  bunch  of  violets  for  his  inamorata. 

I  have  never  seen  such  an  absolute  and  effective 
tie-up  of  every  industry.  And  what  was  it  all 
about?  Simply  because,  on  account  of  long- 
standing abuses,  the  government  had  shut  up 
some  of  the  older  hospitals  of  the  city,  though 
new  and  better  ones  had  been  provided.  The 
people,  however,  felt  that  the  action  was  too 
drastic  and  radical;  the  papers  universally  op- 
posed the  government  in  the  matter,  and  the  strik- 
ers had  the  general  sympathy  of  the  public,  who 
were  willing  to  live  on  dry  bread,  and  walk  miles 
to  their  destinations,  until  at  last  the  government 
gave  way  and  opened  the  old  hospitals  once  more. 
Then,  as  if  by  magic,  the  tram  wheels  began  to 
turn,  the  drivers  of  victorias  cracked  their  whips 
in  the  same  maddening  way  as  of  old,  the  shut- 
ters came  down  from  ten  thousand  little  shops, 
and  the  normal  life  of  Rome  was  resumed  once 
more. 

It  may  be  said  that  this  is  a  deadly  dangerous 
state  of  affairs,  when  the  syndicalists,  for  a  com- 
paratively trivial  reason,  can  thus  paralyze  the 
nerve  of  industry,  and  by  a  single  edict  produce 


ITALY'S  IDEALS  61 

great  inconvenience,  if  not  suffering.  It  must 
be  borne  in  mind,  however,  that  they  only  suc- 
ceed when  the  people  as  a  whole  are  with  them. 
Two  years  before  this  strike,  at  the  beginning  of 
the  Libyan  War,  a  similar  strike  was  ordered  by 
the  radical  socialists,  who  did  not  believe  in  the 
war  and  wished  to  rebuke  the  government,  but 
the  war  was  popular,  and  only  the  socialists  them- 
selves were  rebuked,  for  less  than  thirty  per  cent 
of  those  who  were  called  out  obeyed  the  demand 
of  the  syndicalists,  and  the  wheels  of  life  moved 
on  as  usual  in  Rome.  The  socialists  were  laughed 
at  for  their  pains;  it  was  thought  that  their 
power  was  broken,  and  they  had  not  dared  to  call 
for  another  universal  strike  until  the  one  that  I 
have  described,  in  March  of  1914.  All  this  only 
proves  that  in  Italy,  as  in  America,  a  strike  suc- 
ceeds only  when  it  has  the  sentiment  of  the  people 
behind  it. 

The  socialists,  though  a  strong  and  growing 
force  in  Italy,  are,  as  elsewhere,  divided  into  va- 
rious sections,  some  being  much  more  radical 
than  others.  The  anarchistic  section,  while  bold 
and  defiant,  is  held  in  check  by  the  larger  num- 
ber of  more  moderate  socialists,  and  both  parties, 
and  all  shades  of  socialism,  are  consistently  and 
energetically  opposed  by  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church,  which,  in  spite  of  its  loss  of  temporal 


62      OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

power,  is  by  no  means  to  be  despised  as  a  factor 
in  the  politics  of  Italy. 

Another  factor  of  the  national  life,  which  tends 
to  make  the  Italian  emigrant  a  good  American 
citizen,  is  the  lack  of  centralization  in  Italy. 
There  is  no  one  overwhelmingly  predominant 
city  to  absorb  the  civic  pride  of  the  rest  of  the 
country.  If  it  is  not  true,  as  is  sometimes  said, 
that  Paris  is  France,  it  is  very  largely  true  that 
Buenos  Aires  is  Argentina,  and  Rio  de  Janeiro  is 
Brazil.  It  is  true  that  Sao  Paulo  is  an  important 
center,  and  in  some  respects  more  enterprising 
and  progressive  than  Rio  de  Janeiro,  but  it  is 
also  true  that  the  wealth  of  Brazil  is  largely  cen- 
tered in  its  capital,  and  still  more  true  that  the 
great  landed  proprietors  of  Argentina  are  ab- 
sentee landlords,  and  spend  their  immense  wealth 
in  making  one  gorgeous  capital  instead  of  a  pros- 
perous and  inviting  country  for  the  native  or  the 
immigrant. 

Italy  has  half  a  dozen  large  cities,  but  no  one 
of  supreme  importance,  and  it  has  a  multitude  of 
small  towns,  each  with  its  noble  history,  its  cher- 
ished traditions,  its  civic  pride,  which  lead  its  in- 
habitants proudly  to  say,  "I  am  from  Verona," 
or  "I  from  Padua,"  or  "I  from  Parma,"  or  "I 
from  Monza."  Such  a  wide  diversity  of  local 
interests,  such  love  for  and  pride  in  one's  home 


ITALY'S  IDEALS  63 

surroundings  is  a  great  asset  of  national  charac- 
ter. It  is  the  same  quality  that  makes  the  resi- 
dent of  the  smallest  hamlet  in  Massachusetts,  or 
New  York  or  California  or  Florida  feel  that  he 
lives  in  the  best  state  in  the  Union,  and  that  the 
Union  is  the  "best  country  that  the  sun  ever  shone 
upon."  While  this  sectional  pride  may  foster 
conceit  and  bombast  in  shallow  souls,  it  is  at  least 
better  than  indifference  to  the  claims  of  one's 
home  and  country. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE   INTELLECTUAL   LIFE   OF    MODERN    ITALY 

In  attempting  to  become  better  acquainted  with 
the  Italian  immigrant,  it  is  important  to  know- 
something  of  the  intellectual  life  of  the  country 
from  which  he  comes.  It  is  true  that  there  are 
not  many  poets  or  painters  or  sculptors  in  the 
steerage  accommodations  of  the  Atlantic  liners, 
and  few  "mute,  inglorious  Miltons,"  probably 
step  ashore  at  Ellis  Island.  Nevertheless,  in  this 
matter,  as  in  all  others,  the  fountain-head  af- 
fects the  stream  that  flows  from  it,  and,  if  the 
Italian  nature  is  of  the  stuff  of  which  poets  and 
artists  are  made,  we  may  well  believe  that  some 
beautiful  blossoms  will,  in  time,  appear  upon  the 
humblest  scions  of  this  stock. 

We  need  not  go  back  to  ancient  times  to  prove 
the  literary  and  artistic  ability  of  this  branch  of 
the  Latin  race,  for  it  may  be  said  that  since  the 
days  of  Virgil  and  Horace,  of  Salust  and  Cicero, 
or  even  since  the  times  of  Dante  and  Raphael 
and  Michael  Angelo,  there  have  been  so  many 
changes  in  the  character  and  ideals  of  the  Ital- 
ians, and  so  much  new  blood  has  been  infused 

64 


INTELLECTUAL  LIFE  OF  ITALY       65 

into  the  body  politic  that  their  genius  could 
hardly  affect  the  emigrant  of  to-day.  So  we  will 
confine  this  chapter  to  a  few  brief  allusions  to  the 
intellectual  life  in  Italy,  as  manifested  in  recent 
years. 

Modern  Italian  literature  has  been  handi- 
capped by  more  than  one  weight,  and  it  is  the 
more  wonderful  that  it  has  made,  and  is  making, 
for  itself  a  place  of  no  mean  importance.  As  in 
our  own  country,  Italy,  during  the  last  fifty  years, 
has  called  for  men  of  action  rather  than  for  men 
of  the  study  and  the  cloister.  The  pick  and  the 
shovel,  the  steam  engine  and  the  electric  drill  have 
been  more  in  evidence  in  modern  Italy,  as  in 
America,  than  the  pen  and  the  artist's  brush  and 
palette. 

Again,  as  the  authors  of  "Italy  To-Day"  as- 
sert, "Literary  Italian  is  and  always  has  been  a 
conventional  language,  nowhere  spoken  as  a  liv- 
ing tongue,  nowhere  a  medium  for  the  expression 
of  intimate  realities  of  life.  It,  therefore,  lacks 
that  vivifying  contact  with  popular  sentiment 
and  activity  so  essential  to  a  great  national  lit- 
erature." I  give  this  opinion  for  what  it  is 
worth,  and  have  little  doubt  that  other  authors 
equally  well  informed  would  say  that  much  Ital- 
ian literature  of  the  last  decade  or  two  speaks  the 
living  tongue  of  the  living  people.     But  these 


66      OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

authors  are  undoubtedly  correct  when  they  say, 
"Italians,  by  the  exigencies  of  their  national  con- 
dition, and  by  the  predominant  tone  of  their 
minds,  have  been  directed  to  economic  and  social 
studies,  rather  than  to  belles-lettres.  .  .  .  There 
is  an  amazing  output  of  economic,  social  and 
scientific  literature.  Many  of  its  exponents  are 
men  of  European  fame:  Lombroso  in  criminol- 
ogy, Grassi  in  biology,  Loria  in  economics,  Villari 
in  history,  are  but  a  few." 

When  we  remember  that  the  reading  public  for 
pure  literature  in  Italy  is  as  yet  comparatively 
limited,  and  that  few  poets  or  novelists  could  here 
live  by  their  pens,  the  amount  of  good  literature 
which  is  produced  is  the  more  remarkable. 
D'Annunzio  is  perhaps  the  Italian  writer  best 
known  outside  of  Italy.  It  is  unfortnate  that 
this  is  so,  for,  as  has  been  said,  "his  novels  are 
essentially  studies  in  mental  and  sexual  pathol- 
ogy, and  there  is  hardly  an  important  character 
in  them  who  is  a  sane,  healthy,  human  being." 

We  are  told  that  even  French  translators,  when 
rendering  his  stories  into  their  own  language, 
have  to  expurgate  some  of  his  viler  passages. 
Unfortunately  his  example  has  been  followed  by 
some  modern  English  and  American  authors,  who 
have  gone  to  the  very  verge  of  decency,  and  be- 
yond it,  in  their  realism. 


INTELLECTUAL  LIFE  OF  ITALY       67 

De  Amici's  vividly  picturesque  books  of  travel 
are  known  to  many  American  authors,  and  his 
stories  are  equally  fascinating,  though  florid  in 
their  style. 

Antonio  Fogazzaro  is  thought  by  many  to 
stand  at  the  head  of  Italian  authors,  at  least  of 
the  writers  of  fiction,  and,  unlike  D'Annunzio's, 
his  work  has  a  healthy  and  wholesome  moral  tone. 
He  is  a  force  that  makes  for  strength,  and  sanity, 
and  righteousness. 

But  it  is  useless  in  this  brief  chapter,  even  to 
attempt  to  mention  the  names  of  all  prominent 
Italian  authors,  nor  does  a  work  of  this  sort  re- 
quire that  this  should  be  done,  for  my  purpose 
is  simply  to  show  that  the  modern  Italian  char- 
acter is  still  informed  with  the  literary  and  artis- 
tic spirit. 

The  French  author,  Rene  Bazin,  characteris- 
tically writes :  "The  Italian  language  is  so  easy 
for  verse!  it  has  so  many  rhymes  in  A  and  O! 
It  is  such  a  singing  language !  I  doubt  if  there 
are  many  young  men  who  have  the  'classic 
license' — licenza  liceale,  who  have  not  turned  a 
sonnet,  a  serenade,  or  an  elegy.  Many  of  these 
persevere — which  proves  their  vocation — till  past 
thirty,  or  even  till  old  age.  I  have  known  men 
mature  and  settled,  who  live  in  the  shade  of  their 
own  lemon  trees  and  write  love  verses,  fiery  or 


68      OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

tender,  which  they  print  themselves,  on  their  own 
little  printing  presses,  without  any  desire  for 
fame,  giving  the  book  a  black  cover  when  the 
collection  is  a  sad  one,  and  binding  in  white  parch- 
ment the  inspiration  of  happier  days.  Others 
try  to  find  a  place  in  the  reviews,  which  are  al- 
ways cautious  towards  lines  in  rhyme.  I  would 
say  that  northern  Italy,  and  particularly  Venetia, 
is  fruitful  in  poets,  were  it  not  that  Naples  might 
protest." 

It  is  interesting  to  note,  that  just  as  our  own 
great  Civil  War  gave  birth  to  a  new  literature, 
or  at  least  inspired  older  writers  with  a  new  and 
more  patriotic  note,  writers  like  Lowell  and 
Whittier  and  Longfellow  and  Walt  Whitman,  so 
the  tribulations  of  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth 
century  through  which  Italy  passed  touched  the 
pens  of  her  writers  with  a  fire  and  tenderness 
which  the  more  modern  writers  have  scarcely 
equalled. 

Alexander  Manzoni  and  Giacomo  Leopardi 
are  two  great  writers  of  which  this  might  be  said, 
and  it  is  undoubtedly  true,  as  one  has  written 
that  "The  condemned  and  exiles  of  1821  gave  to 
poetry  a  new  fire  of  youth,  which  broke  forth  in 
the  songs  of  Giovanni  Berchet,  Gabriel  Rossetti 
and  others.  In  1832  Silvio  Pellico  returned  from 
ten  years'  confinement  in  the  prisons  of  Spiel- 


INTELLECTUAL  LIFE  OF  ITALY        69 

berg,  and  published  'Le  Mie  Prigione,'  a  story  of 
his  sufferings,  so  powerful  in  its  patient  cadence 
that  it  cost  Austria  more  than  one  lost  battle  and 
incited  all  liberal  Europe  to  pity.  His  moving 
tragedy  'Francesca  da  Rimini,'  was  full  of  patri- 
otism." Doubtless  the  tragic  days  through 
which  Italy  has  recently  passed  will  multiply  her 
great  poets  as  well  as  her  historians. 

If  modern  Italy  has  been  surpassed  by  other 
nations  in  the  realms  of  polite  literature,  she  has 
certainly  surpassed  as  far  others  in  the  genius  of 
her  musical  composers.  Rossini,  Bellini,  Doni- 
zetti, and  Verdi  are  four  names  "any  one  of 
which  would  have  brought  glory  to  the  nation." 

Of  Rossini  it  is  said,  that  he  "effected  a  revo- 
lution in  music  like  that  of  Goldoni  in  the  drama, 
and  one  can  only  appreciate  what  force,what  va- 
riety of  expression  and  what  fullness  and  rich- 
ness of  form  he  added  to  it  by  comparing  him 
with  his  predecessors.  His  fame  can  be  judged 
by  these  lines  from  the  pen  of  an  illustrious 
French  critic:  'After  the  death  of  Napoleon 
there  was  another  man  who  was  the  subject  of 
conversation  each  day  from  Moscow  to  Naples, 
from  London  to  Vienna,  from  Paris  to  Calcutta. 
This  was  Rossini,  and  his  fame  knew  no  bounda- 
ries except  those  of  the  civilized  world." 

Bellini,  Donizetti,  Verdi;  every  musician  and 


70      OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

lover  of  music  knows  their  names,  and  realizes 
something  of  the  debt  of  gratitude  which,  because 
of  their  genius  and  industry,  America  and  other 
nations  owe  to  Italy. 

Every  traveller  from  across  the  water  realizes 
even  before  the  ship  comes  to  anchor  in  the  har- 
bor of  Naples,  that  he  has  come  to  a  land  of  song, 
and  the  sidewalk  serenade,  which  every  evening 
he  will  hear  from  his  hotel  balcony,  confirms  the 
impression.  It  is  true  that  the  voices  may  often 
be  harsh  and  unmusical,  and  that  the  songs  are 
inspired  by  the  base  hope  of  soldi,  nevertheless 
it  is  the  expression  of  one  element  in  the  Italian 
nature.  The  returning  traveller  to  America  in 
days  of  peace  had  and  will  have  again  many  an 
hour  enlivened  by  the  songs  of  the  steerage  pas- 
sengers, for  almost  always  there  is  an  amateur 
musician  with  a  concertina,  or  at  least  with  an 
accordion  or  jewsharp,  who  is  the  center  of  a 
little  group  of  singers,  while  the  chorus  is  taken 
up  by  the  motley  throng  of  men  and  women, 
young  and  old,  who  surround  him.  Surely  it  is 
a  good  thing  to  have  something  of  the  music  of 
light-hearted  Italy  introduced  into  the  more  som- 
ber body  politic  of  America,  even  though  it  come 
over  in  the  steerage,  and  may  not  be  of  the  high- 
est classical  type. 

It  is  natural  to  suppose  that  the  sculptor's  art 


INTELLECTUAL  LIFE  OF  ITALY        71 

would  flourish  in  Italy,  among  a  people  who  have 
constantly  before  them  many  of  the  great  works 
of  antiquity.  We  are  not  disappointed  for  when 
we  think  of  Antonio  Canova,  who  belonged  to 
the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  has 
been  called  "the  prince  of  sculptors,  and  the  re- 
former of  art  in  Italy";  and  of  Vincenzo  Vela, 
the  greatest  sculptor  of  the  last  half  of  the  cen- 
tury, we  realize  that  the  ancient  art  is  not  lost. 

It  must  be  remembered,  also,  that  the  greatest 
sculptors  from  other  countries  have  come  to  Italy 
to  seek  inspiration  and  to  perfect  their  art. 
America  and  England  are  thus  indebted  to  Italy, 
not  only  because  of  the  works  which  her  sculptors 
have  produced,  but  because  of  the  education  she 
has  given  to  their  own  artistic  sons,  many  of 
whom  have  spent  their  lives  in  their  adopted 
land.  The  world's  greatest  sculptor  of  the  last 
century,  Thorwaldsen,  the  Dane,  lived  for  forty 
years  in  Italy,  and,  as  I  have  been  writing  this 
chapter,  I  have  frequently  looked  out  of  my  win- 
dow at  his  benign  and  sturdy  figure  in  marble 
under  the  palm  trees  of  the  Barberini  Palace 
Gardens. 

When  Thorwaldsen,  after  his  two-score  years 
in  Italy,  went  back  to  Copenhagen,  he  received  an 
ovation  in  his  native  city,  such  as  has  been  ac- 
corded to  few  monarchs  or  warriors,  and  around 


72      OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

the  walls  of  the  Gallery  which  contains  some  of 
his  most  important  work,  and  where  his  body  lies, 
in  its  beautiful  flower-decked  grave,  are  painted 
in  fresco,  scenes  of  his  humble  departure  for 
Italy  and  of  his  triumphant  return,  with  the 
abundant  spoil  which  he  had  there  gathered,  a 
spoil  which  was  the  work  of  his  own  hands. 

In  this  connection  it  should  be  remembered 
that  not  only  sculptors  and  painters  from  other 
lands  have  made  Italy  their  home,  but  men  of 
the  widest  literary  fame  have  resided  here  and 
found  their  themes.  It  is  only  necessary  to  men- 
tion Robert  and  Elizabeth  Barrett  Browning, 
Shelley  and  Keats,  Byron,  and  our  own  popular 
novelist,  Marion  Crawford. 

Though  modern  Italians  have  not  been  so  pre- 
eminent in  painting  as  in  music  and  sculpture, 
their  artists  have  been  by  no  means  entirely  un- 
worthy of  the  past. 

In  sciences  allied  to  art  Italy  has  always  taken 
a  first  rank,  especially  in  astronomy  and  the  ap- 
plication of  electricity.  Many  important  discov- 
eries in  the  starry  heavens  are  due  to  modern 
Italians,  and  we  need  only  mention  the  name 
Marconi  to  recall  the  most  wonderful  and  star- 
tling scientific  achievements  of  the  present  cen- 
tury. It  is  difficult  to  realize  that  it  was  only  in 
1902  that  he  perfected  his  invention  of  wireless 


INTELLECTUAL  LIFE  OF  ITALY        73 

telegraphy,  so  large  a  place  have  Marconigrams 
come  to  have  in  the  communication  of  the  world. 
Now  from  many  a  headland  on  the  shores  of 
Europe  and  America  and  Asia,  rise  the  tall 
skeletons  that  receive  the  messages  that  fly 
through  boundless  space  at  the  command  of  this 
great  inventor.  Every  ship  of  considerable  size 
is  equipped  with  the  wireless  apparatus,  and,  in 
sunshine  or  storm,  through  snow  or  fog,  can  send 
their  message  that  "All's  well,"  can  warn  of 
storm  or  icebergs,  or  send  out  the  distressful  call 
for  help  to  the  four  quarters  of  the  heavens. 

It  is  interesting  to  remember  also  that  the 
most  notable  triumphs  of  Marconi  have  been  in 
linking  together  America  and  Europe.  His  first 
great  success  was  achieved  when,  in  the  last 
month  of  1901,  he  received  a  message  in  New- 
foundland, sent  from  England,  two  thousand 
miles  away,  while  a  year  later  he  transmitted, 
from  that  great  wireless  station  on  the  bleak 
bluffs  of  Cape  Cod,  a  message  from  President 
Roosevelt  directly  to  the  Queen  of  England. 
When  we  recall  the  fact  that  he  is  only  forty- 
seven  years  old,  his  marvellous  invention,  which 
has  already  saved  so  many  hundreds  of  lives  at 
sea,  must  be  put  down  to  another  of  the  tri- 
umphs of  young  men,  for  he  was  not  quite  thirty 
when  his  great  discovery  was  perfected. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

WHY   ITALIANS   EMIGRATE 

The  reader  who  has  patiently  followed  the  au- 
thor thus  far  in  his  story  of  Italy  and  the  Italians 
may  be  inclined  to  ask,  Why  do  these  people  leave 
their  own  favored  land?  If  it  is  a  country  so 
full  of  interest  because  of  its  past,  so  full  of 
promise  for  the  future,  why  should  men  and 
women  who  undoubtedly  love  their  native  land  as 
we  love  ours  desert  it  for  an  untried  home  far 
across  stormy  seas,  among  aliens  in  speech  and 
customs? 

It  would  indeed  seem  to  require  some  very 
powerful  motive  to  uproot  a  family  from  such  a 
country,  especially  when  the  difficulties  and  un- 
certainties of  a  new  and  distant  home  are  re- 
membered. When  the  individual  emigrant  is 
considered,  two  words  may  describe  the  forces 
which  drive  him  from  his  native  land,  and  these 
two  words  are  poverty  and  taxes.  Perhaps  the 
formula  may  be  reduced  to  the  one  word  poverty, 
for  his  poverty  is  in  no  small  measure  the  result 
of  the  direct  and  indirect  taxes  he  has  to  bear. 

74 


WHY  ITALIANS  EMIGRATE  75 

Necessity  is  not  only  the  mother  of  Invention, 
but  of  a  good  many  other  children,  including 
Emigration.  Wages  are  certainly  rising  in 
Italy,  as  in  other  parts  of  the  world,  but  the  cost 
of  living  is  increasing  even  more  rapidly,  so  that 
the  emigrant  is  often  driven  forth  by  the  high 
cost  of  living,  even  though  he  is  in  no  danger,  as 
are  so  many  in  our  own  land,  from  the  cost  of 
high  living. 

The  latest  statistics  which  I  am  able  to  secure 
show  that  the  wages  of  engineers  in  North  Italy, 
where  wages  were  the  highest  before  the  war, 
varied  from  about  sixty-five  cents  to  a  dollar  and 
a  half  a  day.  Boiler-makers  could  earn  from 
sixty  cents  to  nearly  a  dollar  and  a  half.  The 
highest  wages  paid  to  firemen  were  something  less 
than  a  dollar  a  day.  Skilled  master  mechanics 
could  earn  as  much  as  $1.60,  while  unskilled  la- 
borers had  to  be  content  with  sixty-nine  cents  a 
day. 

This  was  in  the  north  where  wages  were  higher 
than  in  any  other  part  of  Italy.  There  is  no 
more  death-dealing  work,  probably,  than  that  in 
the  sulphur  mines  of  Sicily,  but  even  in  these 
mines,  if  the  day  laborers  earned  sixty  cents  a 
day  they  thought  themselves  well  off,  while  in 
some  of  the  mines  they  had  to  take  their  pay  in 
produce  rather  than  in  cash,  which  of  course  al- 


76      OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

lowed  another  margin  of  profit  to  the  employer 
and  a  margin  of  loss  for  the  employee.  Marble 
quarrying  in  Italy  was  one  of  the  great  and 
unique  industries  of  the  Peninsula,  but  a  quarry- 
man  could  rarely  expect  to  earn  a  dollar  a  day. 
From  the  present  chaotic  condition  of  both  wages 
and  prices  no  deductions  can  be  drawn.  Of 
course  wages  during  the  war  increased  in  Italy 
as  in  all  other  lands. 

The  pay  of  women  in  Italy,  for  the  same  hours 
and  the  same  amount  of  work,  was  less  than  that 
of  men,  though  the  men's  pay  was  pitiable 
enough.  Fifty  cents  a  day  would  have  been 
considered  good  pay  in  a  cotton  mill  for  the  or- 
dinary workman,  and  twenty-five  for  the  woman 
worker,  though  in  some  cases  she  might  have 
received  as  much  as  thirty  or  thirty-five  cents. 
This  meant  for  a  day  of  ten  hours,  as  a  rule. 

The  wages  of  the  agricultural  laborers,  how- 
ever, are  of  greater  interest  to  us  than  those  of 
any  other  class,  since  it  is  from  their  ranks, 
largely,  that  the  Italian  Americans  are  recruited. 

It  is  refreshing  to  know  that  the  wages  of 
such  laborers  had  increased  within  the  twenty 
years  before  19 14  from  fifty  to  one  hundred  and 
fifty  per  cent.  But  the  reader  will  ask  himself, 
What  must  they  have  been  in  the  earlier  days? 
when  he  learns  that  the  highest  pay  of  an  agri- 


WHY  ITALIANS  EMIGRATE  77 

cultural  laborer  before  the  war  was  less  than 
fifty  cents  a  day,  while  the  women  earned  less 
than  twenty-five  cents,  and  boys  were  happy  if 
they  found  twelve  or  fifteen  soldi  (cents)  jingling 
in  their  pockets  at  the  end  of  a  day's  work.  In 
the  region  around  Naples,  the  average  pay  was 
about  thirty-five  cents  for  the  men,  and  half  as 
much  for  the  women,  while  in  Sicily  about  the 
same  munificent  wage  was  expected. 

But  what  would  the  total  income  of  a  man  with 
a  family  to  support  amount  to?  It  must  be  re- 
membered that  families  are  by  no  means  small  in 
Italy,  four  or  five  children,  perhaps,  being  the 
average,  while  the  number  often  runs  up  to  a 
dozen  or  more.  The  official  statistics  of  agricul- 
tural labor,  published  in  Rome  a  few  years  ago, 
gave  the  highest  total  average  annual  income  of 
men  at  $106.  This  was  in  Piedmont,  whereas  in 
the  Marches  the  average  income  for  the  whole 
year  was  only  $52  for  the  husband  and  father. 
The  wife  and  mother  and  children  might  among 
them  very  likely  in  many  instances  have  doubled 
this  amount. 

These  figures  alone  will  explain  why  more  than 
300,000  Italians  sailed  yearly  before  the  war  to 
the  United  States  and  other  tens  of  thousands  for 
Argentina  and  Brazil. 

Messrs.  Okey  and  King  in  their  "Italy  of  To- 


78      OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

day,"  tell  us  that  "the  worst  offender  in  the  mat- 
ter of  low  wages,  is  the  Italian  Government  it- 
self, which  employs  women  on  the  railway  lines 
at  six  cents  a  day  (doubtless  only  as  flagwomen 
or  gate  keepers),  and  plate  layers  and  shunters 
at  an  initial  wage  of  thirty-six  cents  a  day,  which 
rises  to  fifty-nine  cents  only  after  twenty-seven 
years  of  service."  A  conservative  writer  has  re- 
cently declared  that  "the  starvation  wages  paid 
to  the  lowest  grade  of  government  employees  in 
Milan  reduces  them  to  a  condition  only  slightly 
better  than  that  of  the  unemployed." 

It  is  quite  certain  that  since  these  statistics, 
which  are  the  latest  I  have  been  able  to  secure, 
were  gathered,  there  has  been  a  very  considerable 
rise  in  wages,  a  rise  which  is  more  than  offset  by 
the  continuous  increase  in  the  price  of  the  neces- 
saries of  life. 

No  wonder  that  the  farm  laborer,  looking  at 
his  hard-earned  fifty  cents,  which  was  all  that  ten 
or  twelve  hours  of  back-breaking  work  with  pick 
or  grub  hoe  had  given  him,  sadly  contrasted  this 
meager  pittance  with  the  two  to  four  dollars  a 
day  which  his  brother,  or  his  uncle  or  his  cousin 
was  earning  on  an  American  railway,  or  in  blast- 
ing out  an  American  tunnel. 

Of  course  the  real  amount  of  pay  a  man  re- 
ceives is  gauged  not  only  by  the  amount  of  money 


WHY  ITALIANS  EMIGRATE  79 

that  is  given  him  for  his  day's  work,  but  also  by 
the  amount  of  the  necessaries  of  life  that  he  can 
buy  with  it.  Unfortunately  he  can  buy  less  in 
Italy  than  in  most  other  lands  for  the  same 
amount  of  money.  In  Rome,  for  instance,  even 
before  the  war,  flour  cost  four  cents  a  pound,  and 
sugar  fifteen  cents  a  pound.  A  friend  of  mine 
who  lived  in  Venice  for  many  years  told  me  that 
with  the  local  duties  added,  he  has  frequently 
had  to  pay  as  high  as  nineteen  or  twenty  cents  a 
pound  for  sugar.  During  the  war  the  Italian 
sugar  bowl  was  absolutely  empty  for  it  took  dol- 
lars instead  of  pennies  to  fill  a  small  one. 

As  one  enters  an  Italian  town,  large  or  small, 
he  is  sure  to  see  a  little  customs  house  at  which  the 
driver  pulls  up  obediently.  The  official  comes 
out,  peers  curiously  into  the  carriage  to  see  if 
perchance  a  bag  of  flour,  or  a  bottle  of  wine,  or 
a  dozen  oranges  are  concealed  under  the  lap  robe. 
If  he  finds  nothing  suspicious  the  traveller  is  al- 
lowed to  drive  on.  But  every  load  of  provisions 
that  enters  the  village  must  pay  the  Octroi  duties, 
or  the  local  tax.  If  one  drives  out  from  Naples 
to  Pozzuoli,  the  ancient  Puteoli,  a  few  miles  dis- 
tant, where  St.  Paul  landed  after  his  adventurous 
voyage  from  Cesarea,  he  will  be  inspected  as  he 
enters  the  miserable,  decadent  town,  lest  he  has 
brought    something    contraband    from    Naples. 


8o      OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

When  he  returns  a  half  hour  later,  and  ap- 
proaches the  invisible  Naples  frontier,  he  will  be 
inspected  again  to  see  if  he  has  brought  some- 
thing dutiable  from  Pozzuoli. 

When  one  drives  a  mile  from  the  ancient  walls 
of  Rome  to  the  church  of  the  Tre  Fontane,  or 
the  magnificent  basilica  of  "St.  Paul  without  the 
Walls,"  he  must,  on  his  return,  encounter  the 
excise  man.  If  he  should  take  the  humble  trol- 
ley car,  he  would  find  it  held  up  at  the  local  cus- 
toms house  long  enough  for  the  inspector  to  go 
through  the  car,  looking  suspiciously  under  every 
seat,  and  at  every  bundle,  to  see  that  the  majestic 
Capital  of  Italy  is  not  defrauded  of  the  duties  on  a 
bunch  of  radishes  or  a  head  of  lettuce. 

Over  many  a  little  shop  in  every  Italian  city 
one  reads  the  sign  Sale  e  Tobacco,  which  those 
uninitiated  in  the  Italian  language  may  perhaps 
read  "Sale  of  Tobacco."  When,  however,  they 
have  been  a  little  longer  in  Italy  they  will  trans- 
late it  "Salt  and  Tobacco,"  and  will  learn  that 
both  of  these  articles  are  considered  luxuries  by 
the  Italian  Government  which  retains  a  monopoly 
of  them. 

Sicily  is  a  great  salt  producing  country,  and,  if 
there  were  no  tax  upon  it,  ten  pounds  could  be 
sold  for  two  cents.     As  it  is,  it  costs  four  cents 


WHY  ITALIANS  EMIGRATE  81 

a  pound,  and  it  is  said  that  some  of  the  poorest 
people  in  Italy  scarcely  taste  salt  from  one  year's 
end  to  the  other.  The  prevalence  of  Pellagra  in 
some  sections  is  ascribed  to  the  lack  of  this  condi- 
ment, and  in  these  regions  the  tax  has  been 
lightened,  or  altogether  lifted. 

I  recall  that  once  when  eating  lunch  at  a  small 
railway  junction,  where  we  were  obliged  to  wait 
some  hours  for  a  train,  we  scattered  a  little  of 
the  salt  which  the  hotel  had  provided  for  our 
hard  boiled  eggs,  upon  the  table  of  the  waiting 
room,  whereupon  the  station  master,  much  to  our 
surprise,  gathered  up  every  last  grain,  and  did 
it  up  in  a  piece  of  paper,  carefully  putting  it  in 
his  pocket  for  the  seasoning  of  his  own  dinner. 

It  must  not  be  supposed,  however,  that  all  nec- 
essary articles  of  food  are  abnormally  high. 
Meat  in  pre-war  times  was  no  higher  than  in 
America,  if  as  high,  while  vegetables  seemed  de- 
cidedly cheaper.  A  bunch  of  delicious  Finochi 
could  in  the  season  be  bought  for  two  cents;  a 
good  cauliflower  for  twice  as  much  and  other 
vegetables  in  about  the  same  proportion.  And  it 
must  also  be  remembered  that  the  Italian  house- 
wife can  make  a  bunch  of  Finochi  and  a  scrap 
of  meat  go  a  great  deal  further  than  can  her 
American  sister,  for,  though  the  Italians  have 


82      OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

for  the  most  part  one  religion,  they  have  a  good 
many  kinds  of  sauces,  to  vary  the  gibe  of  the 
Frenchman  upon  English  cookery. 

In  dismissing  this  question  of  taxes  and  high 
prices  I  shall  venture  to  quote  another  paragraph 
from  the  authors  of  "Italy  To-day,"  who  have 
studied  the  question  evidently  with  great  care  and 
thoroughness.  Their  statistics  of  course  refer 
to  pre-war  times  for  concerning  the  present  ab- 
normal days  no  figures  are  reliable. 

"The  scanty  food  of  the  Italian  is  scantier 
still,  because  taxation  is  out  of  all  proportion  to 
the  resources  of  the  country,  and  protective  duties 
rob  the  poor  to  fill  the  pockets  of  the  rich  land- 
lord and  manufacturer.  According  to  the  calcu- 
lations of  M.  Delivet,  Italy  pays  a  higher  per- 
centage of  its  income  in  taxes  than  any  of  the 
larger  European  States  except  Spain.  The 
State  takes  seventeen  per  cent  as  against  twelve 
in  France,  eight  in  Germany,  six  in  England. 
Another  calculation,  founded  on  M.  de  Fovilles 
figures,  would  place  taxation  at  thirty  per  cent  of 
income.  And  in  Italy  the  taxes  fall  heaviest  on 
the  poor.  Tt  is  progressive  taxation  topsy- 
turvy,' says  Professor  Villari,  'the  less  a  man 
has,  the  more  he  pays.'  Fifty-four  per  cent  of 
the  taxes,  according  to  the  figures  of  Signor 
Flora,  fall  on  the  poor  and  working  classes.     An 


WHY  ITALIANS  EMIGRATE  83 

artisan  or  laborer,  even  if  he  drinks  no  wine,  pays 
from  ten  to  twenty  per  cent  of  his  wages  in  direct 
or  indirect  taxation.  Wheat  pays  a  duty  to  the 
State  of  $3.37  the  quarter.  There  is  a  local  duty 
in  the  larger  towns  on  flour,  bread  and  macaroni, 
up  to  ten  or  fifteen  per  cent  of  their  value.  The 
adverse  exchange  and  the  milling  monopoly, 
which  the  tariffs  ingeniously  encourage,  raise  the 
price  of  bread  higher  still." 

As  in  all  highly  protected  countries,  where 
taxation  is  abnormally  large,  every  effort  is  made 
to  evade  the  taxes,  and  often  with  success.  The 
people  of  the  south  complain  that  the  manufac- 
turers of  the  north  pay  far  less  than  their  pro- 
portion of  the  nation's  burdens. 

How  taxes  are  often  evaded,  at  least  in  part, 
is  illustrated  by  a  story  told  me  by  a  friend  in 
Naples,  who  desired  to  rent  a  large  room  for  a 
religious  purpose.  The  landlord  required  my 
friend  to  sign  two  leases,  one  of  which  was  for 
himself,  and  obligated  her  to  pay  120  lire,  or 
twenty- four  dollars  a  month  rent;  the  other  was 
for  the  Government  which  declared  that  she  paid 
only  sixty  lire,  or  twelve  dollars  a  month. 
When  she  demurred,  and  refused  to  become  a 
party  to  this  deception,  the  landlord  justified  him- 
self by  saying  that  in  any  event  the  Government 
would  not  accept  his  statement  but  would  levy 


84      OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

taxes  on  double  the  amount  he  declared,  so  that 
if  the  contract  shows  that  he  is  paid  120  lire  a 
month,  the  taxes  would  be  a  great  deal  more  than 
was  equitable,  whereas,  if  he  put  down  but  60 
lire,  the  tax  would  then  be  high,  though  com- 
paratively fair.  Nor  was  this  an  exceptional 
case,  for  the  would-be  renter  found  that  to  whom- 
soever she  applied  she  must  make  out  such  a 
double  contract. 

Such  are  some  of  the  results  of  high  protection 
and  high  tariff  in  Italy,  while  another  result  was 
formerly  seen  in  the  crowded  steerage  compart- 
ments of  every  Atlantic  steamer  that  was  allowed 
to  carry  emigrants  to  America. 


CHAPTER  IX 

Italy's  outlet 

In  the  last  chapter  some  reasons  were  given, 
from  the  standpoint  of  the  individual,  for  the 
enormous  emigration  of  Italians  to  other  coun- 
tries. But  this  does  not  tell  the  whole  story,  for 
there  are  conditions  of  a  nation-wide  economic 
character  which  compel  such  an  outflow  of  her 
citizens,  even  if  the  Italians  were  as  great  home 
keepers  as  their  cousins,  the  French. 

We  have  seen  that  the  area  of  United  Italy  is 
110,675  square  miles  excluding  her  colonial  pos- 
sessions and  Italia  Irredenta  whose  boundaries, 
as  I  write,  are  not  yet  settled.  When  we  re- 
member that  into  this  narrow  peninsula  are 
crowded  more  than  thirty-five  millions  of  human 
beings,  that  fact  alone  accounts  for  the  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  sturdy  men  and  women,  who 
every  year  from  the  ports  of  Genoa,  and  Naples 
and  Palermo  wave  their  adieu,  and  often  tearful 
adieu,  to  their  native  land. 

When  a  vessel  is  more  than  full  it  must  spill 
over,     When  the  water  in  a  pond  reaches  the  top 

8s 


86      OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

of  the  embankment  it  must  find  an  outlet.  The 
population  of  Italy  has  now  reached  the  limit  of 
comfortable  subsistence,  and  gone  beyond  it.  It 
must  spill  over  into  other  countries. 

In  spite  of  the  overflow  of  her  citizens,  which 
in  some  years  has  reached  three-quarters  of  a  mil- 
lion, and  on  the  whole  is  steadily  increasing,  Italy 
is  not  being  depopulated.  She  is  a  virile,  vigor- 
ous nation.  The  birth  rate  is  large  and  shows  no 
indication  of  material  decrease,  as  in  many  other 
lands.  If  France  should  lose  700,000  citizens  in 
a  year,  she  would  soon  be  depopulated,  for  her 
birth  rate  barely  makes  good  the  death  rate,  and 
sometimes  falls  below  it.  But  at  the  Italian 
boundary  race  suicide  ceases,  and  in  spite  of 
sending  five  millions  of  her  citizens  to  other  lands 
in  the  first  ten  years  of  this  century,  she  made  an 
actual  net  gain  in  population  of  more  than  half  as 
many. 

In  former  days  those  twin  demons  of  slaugh- 
ter, War  and  Pestilence,  kept  down  the  rapid 
increase  of  population,  as  indeed  War  has  re- 
cently done  and  performed  in  a  less  merciful  way 
the  same  function  that  the  emigrant  ship  under- 
took later,  in  reducing  the  surplus  population  of 
Italy.  Under  the  papal  rule  it  is  said  that  the 
death  rate  in  Rome  was  something  over  sixty  in 
the  thousand.     Now,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  it 


ITALY'S  OUTLET  87 

has  been  reduced  more  than  three-fold,  to  about 
sixteen  in  the  thousand,  making-  Rome  one  of  the 
healthy  cities  of  the  world.  The  draining  of  the 
Pontine  Marshes,  the  destruction  or  circumven- 
tion of  the  mosquito  of  the  Campagna,  the  im- 
proved methods  of  agriculture,  the  comparative 
peace  which  Italy  enjoyed  for  nearly  50  years 
until  1916,  all  these  causes  upset  the  equilibrium 
between  births  and  deaths,  and  caused  Italy's  sons 
and  daughters  to  seek  their  fortunes  in  other 
lands.  Of  late  the  War  demon  is  again  doing 
his  best  to  reduce  the  population  of  fair  Italy 
and  to  discourage  emigration. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  all  these  emi- 
grants did  not  desert  their  fatherland  perma- 
nently. There  is  an  incoming,  as  well  as  an  out- 
going, tide,  especially  in  the  case  of  the  tens 
of  thousands  from  north  Italy  who  sought  work 
in  Germany  and  Switzerland  and  France  during 
the  harvest  months  and  at  certain  other  periods 
of  the  year,  most  of  whom  returned  when  the 
press  of  work  was  over,  with  as  much  of  their 
hard  earned  wages  as  they  had  been  able  to  save. 
There  was  also  an  ebb  as  well  as  a  flood  tide  in 
American  emigration,  as  we  shall  see  later,  and 
the  steerage  accommodations  of  the  Trans- 
Atlantic  liners  were  at  some  seasons  of  the  year 
almost  as  full  on  the  home-coming  ships  as  on  the 


88     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

out-going.  On  the  whole,  however,  the  coming 
tide  was  much  smaller  than  the  going. 

Consider  for  a  moment  longer  what  the  com- 
parative population  and  area  means,  in  terms  of 
some  of  our  own  states.  Cut  off  the  northern 
third  of  California,  and  pack  into  the  rest  of  that 
state  the  thirty-five  millions  of  people  who  now 
live  between  the  Alps  on  the  north  and  the  south- 
ernmost Mediterranean  shore  of  Italy,  and  we 
can  imagine  what  an  exodus  there  would  be  even 
from  the  beautiful  shores  of  sunny  California. 
Even  the  "Native  Sons  of  the  Golden  West" 
would  want  more  elbow  room  and  breathing 
space.  Crowd  these  same  thirty-five  millions  of 
people  into  the  adjoining  states  of  Alabama  and 
Georgia,  and  they  would  have  more  room  for 
their  farms  and  their  factories,  for  their  homes 
and  their  public  institutions,  than  the  people  of 
Italy  had  before  the  war.  Or  join  Iowa  and  Ne- 
braska in  one  long  state;  leave  out  the  western 
twenty-five  thousand  square  miles  of  the  latter 
state  as  being  less  productive  than  the  eastern 
portion,  and  we  have  a  territory  considerably 
larger  than  Italy  from  Turin  to  Syracuse,  with  a 
population  of  only  less  than  one  tenth  that  of 
Italy. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind,  too,  that  whereas 
almost  every  square  mile  of  Iowa  and  Nebraska 


ITALY'S  OUTLET  89 

is  rich  prairie  land  and  capable  of  cultivation, 
there  are  vast  mountain  sections  of  Italy,  which 
cannot  produce  enough  herbage  for  a  goat  to 
browse  upon.  The  Apennines  run  through  the 
center  of  Italy,  from  the  extreme  north  to  the 
very  end  of  Sicily,  rearing  their  lofty,  and  often 
snow-crowned,  peaks  above  the  homes  of  the 
peasants  in  almost  every  part  of  the  kingdom, 
reducing,  by  a  very  large  percentage,  the  culti- 
vable area.  Yet  even  Iowa,  which  could  prob- 
ably as  easily  maintain  a  population  of  thirty- 
five  millions  as  can  Italy  to-day,  begins  to  feel 
herself  crowded  with  her  two  millions  of  people, 
and  so  many  of  her  sons  and  daughters  have  gone 
to  other  states  and  to  Canada  that,  during  the  last 
decade,  her  population  actually  decreased. 

These  comparisons  make  the  reason  for  the 
former  outward  movement  from  Italy  very  plain, 
and  also  show  why  the  government  did  not  take 
measures  to  restrict  this  immigration. 

At  one  time  the  ruling  authorities  of  Italy  were 
decidedly  alarmed  at  the  draining  away  to  other 
lands  of  so  much  of  its  brawn  and  muscle,  and 
they  took  strenuous  measures  to  prevent  any  fur- 
ther increase  in  the  out-going  millions.  But 
calmer  and  wiser  consideration  convinced  the 
government  that,  for  a  country  like  Italy,  there 
was  no  other  solution  of  her  economic  problem, 


go     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

and,  if  emigration  has  not  been  stimulated  by  the 
powers  that  be,  it  has  been  wisely  guided  and 
regulated. 

It  soon  became  evident,  too,  that  while  men 
and  women  were  going  out,  money  was  coming 
back  to  Italy,  not  in  driblets  either,  but  in  millions 
and  millions  of  lire  every  year,  money  sent 
from  the  prosperous  sons  to  the  old  father  and 
mother;  money  sent  back  to  buy  the  little  home- 
stead, to  which  the  emigrant  hopes  sometime  to 
return;  money  for  the  payment  of  the  mortgage 
on  the  home  farm,  or  for  the  improvement  of  the 
homestead. 

Moreover,  it  was  found  that  a  very  consider- 
able percentage  of  the  emigrants,  when  they  be- 
came comparatively  well-to-do  returned  perma- 
nently to  their  fatherland,  bringing  not  only 
money  but  new  ideas,  and  improved  methods 
of  agriculture,  new  farming  and  household 
machinery,  and  then,  in  a  multitude  of  ways, 
benefiting  the  fatherland. 

It  is  worth  while,  in  considering  this  subject, 
so  important  to  the  welfare  of  our  own  country, 
to  write,  not  in  glittering  generalities,  but  to  give 
actual  figures  concerning  our  new  neighbors  from 
Italy.  I  have  before  me  a  publication  on  the 
subject,  kindly  given  me  by  the  Italian  Commis- 
sioner of  Emigration,  Signor  Rossi, 


ITALY'S  OUTLET  91 

In  one  of  the  latest  years  before  the  war  for 
which  complete  statistics  have  been  gathered 
711,446  Italian  emigrants  left  their  native  land. 
Of  these  the  United  States  attracted  considerably 
more  than  one  third,  or  267,637.  Next  to  the 
United  States  in  popularity  with  the  Italian  emi- 
grant, it  will  surprise  many  to  know,  came  Swit- 
zerland which  received  more  than  89,000  Italians 
in  that  year;  then  Germany  and  France  with 
something  like  75,000  each;  but  most  of  these 
emigrants,  as  I  have  before  said,  returned  to  their 
native  land  when  the  working  season  was  over. 

Of  the  lands  across  the  sea,  Argentina  stands 
next  to  the  United  States  in  popularity  with  the 
Italians,  though  far  behind,  for  only  about  70,000, 
or  a  quarter  part  as  many  as  reached  the  United 
States,  sought  the  alluvial  plains  of  the  River 
Plate.  Brazil  attracted  half  as  many  as  Argen- 
tina, or  about  35,000,  while  Canada,  in  this  re- 
spect, was  a  bad  fourth  and  received  some  19,000 
Italian  emigrants. 

The  year  1912,  however,  was  not  by  any  means 
a  record  year  for  Italian  emigration  to  the  United 
States.  The  years  1905,  1906,  and  1907,  all 
largely  surpassed  it,  for  the  hard  times  of  191 1 
evidently  discouraged  many  who  would  otherwise 
have  sought  a  new  home  within  our  boundaries. 
The  commissioner  had  also  compiled  statistics  for 


92      OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

the  first  half  of  1913,  and  we  find  the  hope  of  bet- 
ter times  largely  stimulated  the  outflow  from 
Italy,  and,  in  the  first  semester  of  1913,  164,439 
emigrants  sailed  for  the  United  States  from 
Italian  ports.  In  the  same  six  months  of  191 3 
about  38,000  returned  to  Italy,  leaving,  as  will  be 
seen,  a  net  gain  for  America  of  something  like 
125,000.  The  war,  beginning  in  1914  made  fur- 
ther normal  statistics  of  emigration  out  of  the 
question. 

It  will  also  surprise  some  of  my  readers  to 
know  that  in  some  years  far  more  Italians  have 
returned  to  their  native  country  from  the  United 
States  than  sought  our  shores  from  Italy.  For 
instance,  following  the  panic  year  of  1907  only 
70,000  left  Italy  for  America,  and  more  than 
three  times  as  many  returned.  In  191 1,  less  than 
2,000  more  emigrants  went  out  than  came  back, 
while  in  191 2  more  than  half  as  many  returned  to 
Italy,  as  left  her  shores,  many  of  them  doubtless 
finding  that  in  years  of  depression  and  dulness  the 
Stati  Uniti  was  not  the  Land  of  Promise  that  they 
had  imagined. 

The  care  taken  of  its  emigrants  by  the  Italian 
Government  is  very  commendable.  There  are 
only  three  ports  from  which  they  have  been  al- 
lowed to  depart,  Genoa,  Naples  and  Palermo,  and 
then  only  on  ships  sanctioned  by  the  government 


ITALY'S  OUTLET  93 

and  complying  fully  with  its  stringent  regula- 
tions. The  number  which  each  ship  carries  is 
distinctly  stipulated,  and  any  violation  is  severely 
punished.  The  amount  of  space  on  deck  and  in 
the  cabin  for  each  emigrant  is  prescribed.  The 
beds  they  sleep  on,  and  the  blankets  that  cover 
them,  the  food  they  eat,  both  as  to  its  amount  and 
quality,  are  all  regulated.  An  Italian  Commis- 
sioner and  Doctor  went  out  with  each  load  of 
emigrants,  and  the  doctor  was  expected  to  taste 
of  each  meal  that  was  provided  for  the  emi- 
grants, to  make  sure  that  it  was  up  to  the  re- 
quired standard  of  nutrition.  These  regulations 
will  doubtless  be  enforced  when  emigration  is 
renewed. 

Said  one  emigrant,  who  had  had  an  experience 
of  more  than  one  voyage  across  the  Atlantic, 
"When  the  Commissioner  is  on  board,  the  steer- 
age is  heaven;  when  he  is  absent,  it  is  hell." 
These  nervous  words  may  savor  of  exaggera- 
tion, but  they  tell  us  forcibly  of  the  difference  be- 
tween the  old  days  of  non-regulation  and  the 
present. 

As  the  first  class  passenger  looks  down  from 
his  superior  height,  on  the  promenade  deck,  at 
the  swarming  emigrants  in  the  steerage,  as  he 
sees  the  filth  with  which  the  deck  is  often  littered, 
especially  after  the  al  fresco  meals,  and,  when  on 


94      OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

stormy  days,  he  sees  the  wash  from  the  seas 
sweeping  over  their  quarters,  he  is  inclined  to 
think  that  the  lot  of  the  emigrant,  even  in  these 
better  times,  is  deplorable  enough.  Yet  on  the 
better  ships,  he  is  comfortable  in  the  extreme,  as 
compared  with  former  days,  and  in  good  weather, 
judging  from  the  songs  and  hilarity  which  pre- 
vail in  his  quarters  he  has  a  much  happier  time 
than  the  first  class  passengers. 

It  is  well  indeed  that  strict  regulations  are 
enforced,  for  some  steamship  companies  have 
been  merciless  enough  in  their  treatment  of  emi- 
grants. I  recall  that  on  one  occasion,  returning 
to  my  home  from  South  America,  by  way  of  Eu- 
rope, I  was  for  some  weeks  the  companion  of  a 
great  crowd  of  returning  emigrants  from  Bra- 
zil, Argentina,  and  the  western  coast  of  South 
America.  Most  of  them  were  Spaniards  and 
Italians.  The  filth  and  squalor  of  their  quarters 
was  indescribable.  Hearing  that  there  was  a 
dying  man  in  the  steerage,  I  went  one  day  to  see 
if  I  could  do  anything  for  him,  and  found  him 
in  the  lowest  part  of  the  steerage,  and  far  up  in 
the  very  bow  of  the  ship.  He  was  dying  of  con- 
sumption, and  had  been  shipped  at  Valparaiso  by 
some  heartless  relatives,  for  the  long  voyage 
round  the  Horn,  to  his  native  Italy.  He  was  re- 
duced to  a  skeleton,  and  his  poor  bones  were  only 


ITALY'S  OUTLET  95 

kept  from  the  bunk  on  which  he  lay,  by  a  piece 
of  burlap,  while  another  piece  covered  him.  He 
could  not  eat  the  coarse  food  of  the  other  emi- 
grants, and  had  no  one  to  wait  on  him  except  the 
care  which  his  kindly  fellow  passengers  could 
give  him. 

I  at  once  sought  the  captain  and  told  him  of  the 
dreadful  condition  in  which  I  had  found  this  man, 
and  the  unspeakably  filthy  condition  of  the  steer- 
age generally,  and  intimated  that  I  should  report 
the  matter  to  the  authorities  on  reaching  England. 
He  professed  great  surprise  at  the  condition  of 
things  on  his  own  ship,  of  which,  of  course,  he 
ought  to  have  been  fully  aware,  and  promised  to 
see  that  the  sick  man  had  a  steward  detailed  to 
wait  on  him,  and  that  he  should  have  nourishing 
food  as  well  as  care.  But,  alas,  it  was  too  late. 
Two  days  more  and  the  poor  fellow  was  dead, 
and  his  body  consigned  to  the  sea. 

His  case  is  doubtless  only  one  of  a  multitude 
which  other  travellers  might  relate,  and  it  is  well 
indeed,  that  the  Italian  government  cares  for  its 
emigrants  after  such  an  excellent  paternal  fash- 
ion both  on  their  outward  passage  and  their  re- 
turn. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE   AGREEABLE   ITALIAN 

What  sort  of  manners  will  the  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  emigrants  from  the  Peninsula  of 
Italy  introduce  into  their  new  home  across  the 
sea?  However  Americans  may  pride  themselves 
on  their  sturdier  and  more  virile  qualities  of  inde- 
pendence, enterprise  and  push,  we  can  hardly  as 
yet  count  ourselves  among  the  most  polite  nations 
of  the  world.  In  fact,  the  enterprise  and  push 
that  have  subdued  our  prairies  and  spanned  our 
continent  with  a  dozen  lines  of  iron  rails,  and 
tunnelled  our  cities  for  the  subways,  have  often 
seemed  to  push  out  the  gentler  qualities  of  polite- 
ness and  good  breeding. 

There  is  a  certain  swaggering  rudeness,  that, 
by  many  foreigners,  is  considered  typical  of  the 
American;  a  boastfulness  that  falls  little  short 
of  braggadocio,  and  an  insistence  on  personal 
rights  and  privileges,  which  an  undue  love  of 
independence  has  bred.  Though  these  qualities 
are  often  exaggerated  by  the  foreign  visitor,  and 
though  the  stories  of  American  manners  which 

Mrs.  Trollope  and  Dickens  spread  throughout 

96 


THE  AGREEABLE  ITALIAN  97 

the  world,  are  little  less  than  libels,  there  must  be 
some  foundation  for  the  almost  universally  prev- 
alent idea  that,  with  all  our  sterling  qualities,  we 
still  lack  something,  as  a  nation,  of  the  graces 
and  amenities  of  life. 

Will  the  Italian  do  anything  to  improve  this 
racial  strain,  as,  in  the  generations  to  come,  he 
mingles  his  blood  with  ours,  and  joins  in  making 
the  American  of  the  future? 

I  think  it  is  plain  that  if  we  as  Americans  have 
something  to  learn,  he  has  something  to  teach  in 
this  direction.  There  is  a  native  politeness  about 
the  unspoiled  Italian,  however  poor  he  may  be, 
that  is  very  charming.  To  be  sure,  he  often  is 
spoiled,  as  we  shall  see  in  another  chapter,  either 
by  his  contact  with  foreigners,  or  by  an  exag- 
gerated idea  of  his  own  importance,  which  has 
come  in  with  the  advent  of  the  new  Italy,  but  we 
can  yet  find  him,  in  most  parts  of  Italy,  with  his 
modest,  sunny  disposition,  his  respect  for  the 
rights  of  others,  and  his  desire  for  their  good 
opinion.  Especially  in  the  country  districts  do 
we  find  this  type  of  Italian,  the  districts  from 
which,  fortunately,  come  most  of  those  who  seek 
our  shores. 

As  we  walk  along  almost  any  country  road,  we 
are  greeted  by  every  peasant  with  a  smile,  and  a 
hearty  ((Buon  Giorno!"  (Good  morning)  or  if  he 


98      OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

hesitates  to  presume  upon  giving  us  the  first 
greeting  a  "Buon  Giorno"  from  the  stranger  will 
light  up  a  more  radiant  smile  and  a  still  heartier 
return  of  the  greeting.  When  I  go  to  dinner  in 
my  boarding  house,  if  I  meet  the  pleasant-faced 
maid  in  the  passage  way,  she  wishes  me  in  a  per- 
fectly respectful  manner  a  "Bon  Appetit,"  and 
when  my  fellow  guests  rise  from  the  dinner  table, 
though  I  may  not  know  one  of  them,  they  often 
bow  elaborately,  with  a  pleasant  "Buona  Sera" 
(Good  evening)  for  their  benediction. 

All  this  politeness  on  the  part  of  the  peasants 
and  the  servants  is  usually  without  any  touch  of 
servility.  In  some  countries  one  is  waited  on 
with  the  utmost  assiduity,  but  there  is  the  feeling 
all  the  time  that  the  servant  has  his  eye  on  the 
"tip,"  and  that  his  politeness  is  gauged  to  a 
hair's  breadth  by  the  size  of  the  gratuity  that  he 
expects.  A  well-dressed  man  receives  twice  the 
attention  that  his  shabby  neighbor  may  expect, 
and  a  glittering  diamond  ring  on  my  lady's  fin- 
ger would  greatly  accentuate  the  speed  with 
which  dinner  is  served,  and  increase  the  flourish 
with  which  the  dishes  are  presented. 

In  Italy,  it  is  true,  the  waiters  expect  their 
tip  as  in  other  countries,  but  it  is  accepted  as 
honestly  earned  wages  would  be  taken,  without 
the  suspicion  that  it  is  a  gratuity  for  which  one 


THE  AGREEABLE  ITALIAN  99 

should  be  overwhelmingly  grateful.  If  it  is  less 
than  the  recipients  expected,  they  do  not  show 
their  displeasure  as  a  more  servile  waiter  in  some 
other  countries  would  do,  but  accept  it  with  as 
good  grace  as  possible,  hoping  for  better  luck 
next  time. 

At  an  English  hotel  in  Constantinople  I  have 
been  followed  out  of  the  room  by  an  obsequious 
head  waiter,  to  whom  I  had  already  given  a  fee, 
demanding  a  tip  for  the  under  waiter,  whom  I 
had  indeed  already  paid  for  his  services.  Such 
obsequiousness  before  the  tip,  and  such  insolence 
afterwards,  I  can  hardly  imagine  as  ocurring  in 
Italy. 

In  many  Italian  cities  the  streets  are  very  nar- 
row, and,  at  certain  times  of  the  day,  very 
crowded,  so  that  it  is  with  difficulty  that  one  forces 
his  way  through  them,  but  I  have  seen  very  little 
rude  pushing  or  hustling  in  these  narrow  thor- 
oughfares. If  one  is  in  a  hurry  the  word  "Per- 
messo"  is  usually  sufficient  to  open  the  way 
through  the  densest  crowd,  and  this  word  seems 
to  be  upon  the  lips  of  every  one.  The  fishwife 
with  her  basket  of  live  eels  upon  her  head,  the 
porter  bowed  under  a  heavy  trunk  upon  his  shoul- 
ders, the  errand  boy  carrying  a  loaf  of  bread  a 
yard  long  under  his  arm,  all  intent  upon  reaching 
their  destination,  will  have  to  ask  permission  to 


ioo     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

proceed  perhaps  a  dozen  times  in  the  course  of  a 
short  walk,  a  boon  that  is  always  politely  asked, 
and  promptly  given. 

The  traveller  in  Italy  naturally  gathers  some 
idea  of  the  national  traits  of  character  from  the 
hotel  servants  whom  he  meets  at  least  three  times 
a  day,  and  they  are  certainly  typical  of  a  large 
class  of  Italians,  not  the  poorest,  and  of  course  by 
no  means  the  most  cultured.  The  waiters  in  their 
dress  suits  have  often  reminded  me  of  the  college 
Glee  Clubs  at  home,  when  the  boys  are  off  on  a 
concert  tour,  and  it  would  not  surprise  me  to  see 
them  line  up  in  a  row  and  give  a  college  yell,  or 
render  a  college  glee.  To  use  a  college  phrase 
in  this  connection,  the  American  University  man 
would  have  "nothing  on"  the  average  Italian 
waiter  in  the  matter  of  good  looks,  self  posses- 
sion, or  attractive  manners,  and  I  doubt  if  he 
could  speak  half  as  many  languages  as  the  man 
who  brings  him  his  soup  and  macaroni. 

The  children  of  Italy  seem  to  me  among  the 
most  attractive  in  the  world,  and  I  think  this  can 
be  said  without  any  qualification.  No  one  can 
walk  through  the  palm-lined  parks  of  Naples,  or 
watch  the  small  girls  skipping  rope  in  the  open 
gravelly  space  of  the  Giardino  Reale  in  Venice, 
without  being  struck  by  the  attractive  features, 
and  the  pretty  manners  of  the  little  folks. 


THE  AGREEABLE  ITALIAN  101 

Even  the  poor  children  in  their  rags  and  dirt 
have  a  charm  of  their  own.  Bright  black  eyes 
peep  out  from  under  tangled  locks.  The  swarthy, 
oval  cheeks  are  dinted  with  merry  dimples,  and 
one  says  a  hundred  times  a  day,  "If  that  child 
were  only  well  washed  and  well  dressed  what  a 
beauty  he  would  be!"  In  their  plays,  too,  they 
seem  friendly  and  gentle  with  one  another,  and 
the  care  that  the  big  brother  bestows  upon  the 
baby  sister,  though  she  may  be  only  a  couple  of 
years  his  junior,  is  often  as  touching  as  it  is  win- 
some. 

The  older  people  of  Italy  have  the  reputation 
of  being  very  fond  of  children,  and  of  treating 
them  with  great  affection  and  gentleness.  Even 
in  the  poorest  rookery,  I  am  told  by  those  who 
know,  the  children  are  usually  loved  and  petted, 
given  the  best  that  their  parents  can  afford,  and 
are  treated  better  than  their  elders  treat  them- 
selves. 

Patience,  it  is  true,  may  sometimes  cease  to  be 
a  virtue,  but  it  is  closely  connected  with  good 
manners  as  well  as  good  morals,  and  the  lower 
classes  in  Italy,  during  the  long  years  when  they 
have  endured  a  multitude  of  privations,  enormous 
taxes  wrung  from  them  by  unjust  rulers,  poor 
wages  and  long  hours  of  work,  imposed  by  ab- 
sentee landlords,  have  had  a  chance  to  cultivate 


102     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

the  virtue  of  patience  in  an  unusual  degree. 
Frugality,  too,  as  I  have  said  before,  has  been 
taught  by  these  hard  years  of  poverty;  and  con- 
tentment, and  ability  to  make  the  best  of  one's 
hard  luck,  are  certainly  virtues  that  are  near  akin 
to  good  nature  and  good  breeding. 

That  this  patient  contentment,  and  this  willing- 
ness to  make  the  best  of  things  as  they  are,  have 
not  degenerated  into  apathy  and  hopelessness  is 
shown  by  the  way  in  which  Mazzini  was  able  to 
arouse  the  Italians,  from  the  snow-capped  Alps 
to  the  sulphur  mines  of  Sicily  when  he  uttered 
his  bugle  call  for  liberty  and  a  united  Italy,  and 
when  Garibaldi  led  them  during  those  long  twenty 
years  to  defeat  after  defeat,  but,  at  length,  to 
final  and  glorious  victory. 

Moreover,  every  emigrant  ship  with  its  prow 
turned  toward  the  new  world,  loaded  with  hope- 
ful, enterprising  men,  who  are  willing  to  face  the 
untried  problems  of  a  strange  continent,  show 
that  with  all  their  patience  and  resignation  to 
their  lot  at  home,  the  adventurous  spirit  of  the 
pioneer  has  not  been  crushed  out  of  them. 

In  closing  this  chapter  I  have  yielded  to  the 
temptation  to  quote  another  paragraph  or  two 
from  the  lively  and  picturesque  description  by 
Rene  Bazin,  as  he  tells  of  his  visit  to  a  typical 
family  of  the  lower  orders  in  a  tenement  house 


THE  AGREEABLE  ITALIAN  103 

in  Naples,  built  by  the  city  to  take  the  place  of 
another  one  in  one  of  the  unspeakable  purlieus, 
such  as  have  been  a  disgrace,  and  are  still,  to  the 
good  name  of  Naples.  In  the  old  slums  of  Na- 
ples undoubtedly  this  picture  would  be  much  less 
rosy,  but  this  tells  us  something  of  the  circum- 
stances and  the  character  of  the  poorest  Neapoli- 
tan who  has  begun  to  rise  in  the  world,  and  gives 
us  some  insight  into  the  contented  character  of 
the  Italians,  which  takes  what  the  gods  give  and 
makes  the  best  of  it. 

One  of  our  party  lifts  the  knocker  at  a  fine, 
broad  door,  belonging  to  a  sort  of  palace  in  four 
stories.  The  concierge  comes  to  us  through  a 
paved  vestibule  very  neatly  kept.  Opposite  is  a 
square  staircase,  all  in  granite.  At  the  left  a 
glazed  door  opens  upon  a  great  court,  entirely 
surrounded  by  buildings.  We  go  up  as  far  as 
the  third  story,  to  have  an  idea  of  the  medium 
apartments  in  this  new  quarter.  The  building 
can  accommodate  thirty-three  families.  The 
first  apartment  that  we  visit  consists  of  three 
rooms,  and  is  occupied  by  four  sisters,  of  whom 
one  has  two  children.  They  receive  us  very  will- 
ingly on  being  told  that  I  am  a  stranger,  inter- 
ested in  seeing  everything  in  Naples.  The  rooms 
were  in  perfect  order ;  the  white  walls  much  deco- 
rated with  prints  or  framed  photographs.  In  the 
kitchen  a  gray  turkey  was  walking  about  under 
the  table,  and  two  top-knot  pigeons  cooed  from 
the  window-ledsre. 


104     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

"How  much  do  you  pay,  Signora,  for  this  nice 
apartment?" 

"Twenty-six  lire  ($5.20)  a  month." 
"And  you  are  very  well  suited  with  it?" 
"Perfectly.     Our    neighbors    have    only    two 
rooms,  but  they  pay  less — seventeen  lire." 

The  right  hand  neighbor  has  no  turkey,  but  he 
keeps  a  hen.  He  is  an  old  journeyman  cabinet- 
maker. He  assures  us  that  he  has  no  fault  to 
find  with  the  lodgings,  and  also  that  his  hen  gives 
him  an  egg  every  day.  The  third  household  is 
quite  young,  and  the  handsome  girl  who  shows 
us  the  apartment  does  not  need  to  be  asked 
whether  she  is  content.  This  appears  from  the 
smile  she  gives  us,  from  the  coral  hair-pin  stuck 
proudly  in  her  crisped  hair;  also  from  the  ab- 
sence of  turkey,  pigeon,  or  hen.  Her  man  is  in 
the  city,  and  will  presently  come  home.  He  is  a 
lustroscarpe — a  bootblack,  she  tells  us. 

Upon  the  whole,  the  apartments  are  good,  but 
the  price  can  suit  only  those  who  have  money 
saved  up,  or  the  very  young,  who  postpone  their 
saving  till  some  later  day. 

There  are  still  many  tenements  in  Naples  un- 
speakably dark  and  dirty,  but  it  may  be  hoped 
that  Bazin's  experience  at  least  heralds  a  better 
day.  When  Naples'  slums  are  regenerated  it 
may  be  taken  for  granted  that  the  worst  of  Italy's 
purlieus  have  been  reclaimed. 


A  Crowd  in  Naples 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE    DISAGREEABLE    ITALIAN 

Lest  I  should  seem  to  the  reader  to  hold  a  brief 
for  the  Italian,  and  to  be  able  to  see  nothing  but 
good  in  his  character,  I  must  hasten  to  add,  in 
order  to  give  an  impartial  view,  that  there  is  a 
disagreeable  type  of  the  national  character. 
These  traits,  since  they  lie  upon  the  surface  and 
are  seen  by  any  passing  traveller,  are  often  apt 
unduly  to  prejudice  him.  He  is  not  likely  to  see 
the  gentler  side  of  family  life,  for  that,  in  Italy 
as  everywhere  else,  is  hidden  behind  the  four 
walls  of  home;  nor  is  the  average  tourist  likely 
to  know  much  of  the  hospitality  of  the  Italians, 
since  ordinarily  he  spends  too  short  a  time  in  the 
country  to  realize  its  unstinted  generosity.  One 
who  speaks  out  of  a  large  experience  has  said, 
"The  Italians  pride  themselves  upon  their  hos- 
pitality. As  a  Florentine  said  to  me,  'They  know 
and  feel  themselves  the  heirs  of  a  very  ancient 
race,  habituated  to  receive  the  visits  of  strangers 
from  every  nation,  and  besides  they  take  great 
pleasure  in  making  known,  admired,  and  loved, 

105 


106     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

that  special  corner  of  the  country  in  which  they 
themselves  dwell.'  " 

But  the  hasty  tripper  from  America  is  not  in  a 
position  to  know  much  of  this  side  of  Italian 
life.  He  sees  the  crowds  upon  the  street,  the 
grasping,  and  often  dishonest,  landlord  of  the 
hotel  or  restaurant,  the  beggars  that  swarm  about 
the  church  doors,  the  importunate  vendors  of 
post  cards  and  trinkets  that  he  does  not  want ;  the 
"spiders"  who  stand  at  the  doors  of  the  curio 
shops,  to  lure  him  into  their  parlors,  from  which 
it  is  difficult  to  escape  without  buying  some  use- 
less article,  and  he  is  apt,  when  he  leaves  the 
country,  to  shake  the  dust  from  off  his  feet,  with 
the  devout  thanksgiving  that  there  are  cleaner 
and  more  honest  countries  in  the  north,  to  which 
he  gladly  hies  himself. 

His  psalm  of  thanksgiving  for  getting  beyond 
its  boundaries  will  be  still  more  emphatic,  if  he 
finds  that  his  trunk  straps  have  been  stolen,  the 
lock  of  his  trunk  picked,  and  some  valuables  ex- 
tracted, with  no  possible  redress  from  the  rail- 
way company,  which  is  the  Italian  government. 

Though  I  believe  these  are  the  passing  traits 
of  a  country  which  is  just  emerging  from  the 
tyranny  of  kings  and  landlords  into  the  freedom 
of  constitutional  liberty,  yet  since  they  are  char- 
acteristic of  certain  types  of  the  Italian  of  to-day, 


THE  DISAGREEABLE  ITALIAN         107 

an  impartial  writer  must  not  entirely  overlook 
them. 

As  in  most  countries  which  are  practical  de- 
mocracies, our  own  not  excepted,  there  is  a  class 
of  half-educated  Italian  youths,  who  know  just 
enough  to  look  down  upon  their  peasant  ances- 
tors, but  not  enough  to  be  gentlemanly  and  con- 
siderate of  others.  The  public  schools  of  Italy 
which  abound  everywhere,  like  public  schools  in 
other  countries,  often  give  a  superficial  education, 
which  is  almost  worse  than  none.  I  remember  a 
group  of  young  men,  who  on  one  occasion  made 
the  long  tram-car  ride  from  Castellamare  to  Sor- 
rento most  disagreeable.  We  were  seated  in  the 
non-smoking  compartment  of  the  car,  when  sev- 
eral of  them  rudely  and  noisily  crowded  in  and 
lighted  their  cigarettes. 

One  of  the  ladies  of  the  party  suggested  to  the 
conductor,  who  had  hitherto  taken  no  notice  of 
the  infringement  of  the  law,  that  vietato  fumare 
was  posted  in  large  letters  in  the  compartment, 
whereupon  he  gently  tried  to  persuade  the  young 
men  to  put  out  their  cigarettes.  The  one  to 
whom  he  spoke  did  so,  whereupon  another,  in  a 
spirit  of  bravado,  immediately  lit  his,  and  took 
especial  pains  to  puff  the  smoke  into  the  face  of 
the  ladies  present,  and  from  that  time  until  the 
end  of  the  journey,  the  whole  crowd  did  their  best 


108     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

to  make  things  disagreeable.  One  of  them,  evi- 
dently the  "smart  Alec"  of  the  party,  made  vari- 
ous jeering  remarks,  which  perhaps  he  took  it 
for  granted  would  not  be  understood,  while  the 
others  laughed  most  uproariously  at  his  crude 
jokes,  and  all  took  pains  to  give  to  every  one  the 
benefit  of  as  much  tobacco  smoke  as  they  conven- 
iently could,  while  the  conductor  was  evidently 
afraid  to  interfere  with  their  hilarity. 

This  was  undoubtedly  an  exceptional  case,  but 
not  an  isolated  one.  These  young  fellows  had 
been  to  the  public  schools,  and  were  able  to  read 
and  write,  while  perhaps  their  fathers  and  moth- 
ers did  not  know  their  letters,  but  they  had  not 
obtained  the  first  rudiments  of  an  education  in 
politeness  or  good  manners  and  in  these  matters, 
doubtless,  were  far  surpassed  by  their  unlettered 
parents.  Very  likely  their  children,  however, 
will  take  the  next  step,  and  learn  that  the  good 
breeding  and  good  manners  are  the  A,  B,  C  of  a 
good  education. 

It  may  be  a  reflection  upon  the  traveller,  rather 
than  upon  the  Italian,  but  it  is  nevertheless  true 
that  these  disagreeable  traits  are  most  evident 
where  tourists  congregate.  In  the  remoter  coun- 
try districts  you  will  find  more  courtesy  and  genu- 
ine grace  of  heart  and  manner  than  in  the  cities 
and  towns  crowded  with  tourists.     For  instance, 


THE  DISAGREEABLE  ITALIAN        109 

I  have  never  seen  such  impudent  and  insolent 
children  as  in  Amalfi,  a  little  town  which,  at  cer- 
tain seasons  of  the  year,  is  overrun  with  for- 
eigners, for  the  natural  disposition  of  the  Italian 
child  seems  usually  to  be  kindly  and  gracious. 

Again,  the  average  Italian  peasant  has  not  yet 
learned  the  truth  of  the  close  juxtaposition  of 
cleanliness  and  godliness,  or  if  he  has,  he  cares 
very  little  for  either.  As  compared  with  the 
poorer  classes  in  other  countries  the  poor  Italian 
is  often  loathsome  in  his  filth  and  rags.  Soap 
and  water  seem  to  be  unknown  commodities  in 
some  sections,  and  in  wandering  through  the 
slums  of  such  cities  as  Naples  or  Venice,  one 
wonders  that  the  black  plague  does  not  sweep  off 
its  millions  every  year,  or  else  he  comes  to  the 
conclusion  that  there  is  very  little  in  the  microbe 
theory,  for  there  seem  to  be  evil  germs  enough 
in  any  one  of  these  streets  to  inoculate  the  whole 
human  family. 

Closely  connected  with  the  filth  of  Italy,  and, 
indeed,  the  cause  of  much  of  it,  is  the  habit  of 
promiscuous  spitting  everywhere,  and  on  all  oc- 
casions. A  courtly  college  president  of  my  ac- 
quaintance used  to  deprecate  the  habit  of  certain 
college  students  whom  he  called  "young  men  of 
great  expectorations."  His  facetious  phrase 
might  be  applied  to  nine  out  of  ten  of  the  lower 


no     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

classes  of  Italian  men.  The  old  vendor  of  pa- 
pers, opposite  my  window  in  the  Street  of  the 
Four  Fountains  in  Rome,  keeps  the  sidewalk  con- 
stantly wet  in  a  wide  circle  around  him  all  the 
day  long,  so  that  the  street  sprinkler  would 
scarcely  seem  to  be  necessary  in  that  region. 

"For  the  sake  of  health  and  decency,  you  are 
requested  not  to  spit  upon  the  floor,"  is  the  pa- 
thetic sign  in  many  railway  cars,  and  other  pub- 
lic places,  yet  I  have  seen  a  well-dressed  passen- 
ger actually  spit  upon  the  sign,  as  well  as  on  the 
floor,  apparently  unconscious  of  any  wrong,  and 
without  the  slightest  objection  on  the  part  of  the 
guard  or  the  other  passengers,  though  some  of 
the  ladies  drew  their  skirts  about  them  in  mute 
protest.  I  have  even  seen  a  man  sitting  on  the 
gunwale  of  a  boat,  expectorate  into  the  boat 
rather  than  upon  the  water,  as  it  would  seem 
most  natural  even  for  an  Italian  to  do. 

Many  of  the  churches  prominently  post  up  the 
sign,  "Out  of  respect  for  the  house  of  God,  you 
are  earnestly  prayed  not  to  spit  upon  the  floor," 
a  prayer  not  always  answered  by  the  worshippers. 

This  disregard  of  cleanliness  is,  however,  only 
another  passing  phase  of  the  evolution  of  Italy. 
Such  signs  as  I  have  alluded  to  are  altogether 
new,  and  the  average  Italian  cannot  as  yet  under- 
stand their  necessity,  nor  the  average  policeman 


THE  DISAGREEABLE  ITALIAN        in 

the  importance  of  enforcing  their  prohibition. 
Some  such  drastic  enforcements  of  the  law  as 
Boston  occasionally  witnesses,  when  numbers  of 
people  are  imprisoned  for  spitting  upon  the  side- 
walk, would  doubtless  go  far  to  remove  this  nui- 
sance, and  one  of  these  days  Italy,  in  these  re- 
spects, will  take  her  place  beside  other  civilized 
countries.  Already  the  traveller  can  see  con- 
stant improvement,  even  in  such  cities  as  Naples 
and  Venice,  as  he  visits  them  from  year  to  year. 
Thirty  years  ago  Naples  was  at  times  a  pest  hole, 
where  infectious  diseases  raged  almost  un- 
checked. Now,  in  spite  of  the  filth  of  its  dark 
alleys,  it  is  comparatively  healthy  and  wholesome. 
In  Venice,  too,  I  note  a  great  change  for  the  bet- 
ter in  the  course  of  the  last  three  decades,  and  all 
this  improvement  holds  out  good  promise  for  the 
future. 

The  petty  impositions  practised  upon  the 
stranger  are  even  harder  for  him  to  bear  than  the 
dirt  and  squalor  which  he  sees  in  many  places. 
He  can  step  around  the  filth,  and  he  can  shut  his 
eyes  to  a  good  deal  of  it,  if  he  is  fastidious,  but 
he  cannot  avoid  the  small  pilferings  which  rob 
him  of  a  soldo  here  and  a  lira  there. 

For  instance,  he  must  often  make  a  very  hard 
and  fast  bargain  with  his  landlord  about  every 
possible  item  of  expenditure,  or  he  will  find,  when 


H2     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

his  bill  is  presented,  that  there  are  several  un- 
accountable charges,  which  mine  host  glibly  ex- 
plains, but  which  the  traveller  feels  certain  are 
impositions. 

He  is  also  pretty  sure  to  have  bad  money 
passed  upon  him.  Unless  he  keeps  a  very  sharp 
outlook  for  spurious  coins,  or  for  those  that  are 
out  of  date,  he  will  find,  when  he  comes  to  pay 
his  next  bill,  that  he  has  on  hand  a  collection  of 
Argentine,  Spanish  or  Greek  soldi,  or  of  lire 
that  were  coined  before  1863,  and  which  will  not 
be  taken,  or  perhaps  that  his  silver  coins  are  of 
pewter  instead  of  the  pure  metal. 

When  one  discovers  such  an  imposition  and 
hands  back  the  worthless  coins,  they  are  received 
with  the  greatest  signs  of  amazement,  as  though 
the  dealer  had  never  seen  such  coins  before,  or 
possibly  he  takes  it  quite  as  a  matter  of  course, 
and  as  a  good  joke  which  failed  in  this  particular 
case,  and  he  smilingly  hands  the  tourist  a  good 
coin  without  apparently  the  least  twinge  of  con- 
science. 

In  a  large  and  apparently  very  respectable 
money-changer's  office,  in  the  great  Galleria  of 
Naples,  I  once  received  a  bad  silver  piece  in  get- 
ting some  gold  exchanged.  As  I  sailed  from 
Naples  almost  immediately  afterwards,  I  did  not 
discover  the  imposition  until  too  far  away  to 


THE  DISAGREEABLE  ITALIAN        113 

remedy  it  at  the  time.  Some  two  months  after- 
wards, however,  I  was  in  Naples  again,  and, 
going  to  the  money-changer,  I  handed  out  the  bad 
coin,  saying,  '"You  gave  me  this  when  I  ex- 
changed my  money."  Without  a  murmur  of 
dissent  he  immediately  handed  me  good  money 
for  the  bad,  since  the  transaction  was  such  an 
every  day  occurrence  that  he  evidently  did  not 
know  whether  it  occurred  the  day  before,  or  the 
year  before,  but  had  no  question  as  to  the  justice 
of  my  demand. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  the  extreme  caution 
which  the  small  dealer  exercises  when  a  silver 
coin  is  presented.  He  will  bite  it  and  ring  it  on 
the  counter,  while  sometimes  that  is  not  sufficient 
and  he  will  take  it  out  on  the  stone  pavement,  to 
see  whether  it  rings  true  on  stone  as  well  as  on 
wood.  But  the  traveller  himself  soon  learns 
similar  caution  and  eyes  suspiciously  every  piece 
of  silver  that  passes  through  his  hands. 

There  are  other  little  impositions  which  are 
even  more  annoying.  Every  one  seems  to  be  in- 
tent upon  rendering  some  service  which  you  do 
not  want  or  need,  but  which  you  are  expected  to 
pay  for,  all  the  same.  The  children  learn  the 
trick  very  early,  by  plucking  a  handful  of  worth- 
less wild  flowers,  and  throwing  them  into  your 
carriage  as  you  pass,  or  by  turning  cart  wheels  on 


ii4     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

the  sidewalk,  and  then  running  after  you  with 
violent  asseverations  that  you  owe  them  a  soldo 
for  their  pains.  In  many  hotels  there  are  several 
supernumeraries  who  never  seem  to  do  anything 
for  the  guest  and  whom  he  never  sees  until  they 
stand  hat  in  hand  in  the  hallway,  as  he  is  about 
to  take  his  departure,  but  all  of  whom  expect  a 
gratuity. 

When  you  enter  a  church,  one  old  woman  will 
open  the  door,  while  another  will  pull  aside  the 
heavy  curtain  within,  and  both  will  hold  out 
scrawny,  dirty  hands  for  payment,  though  you 
are  quite  able  to  open  your  own  doors,  and  would 
much  prefer  to  do  so. 

In  Venice  a  decrepit  old  "hooker"  is  found  at 
every  landing-place,  who  performs  the  perfectly 
useless  service  of  holding  on  to  your  gondola 
while  you  step  ashore,  though  a  gondola,  of  all 
possible  water  craft,  is  the  easiest  of  egress. 
But  this  unnecessary  service  gives  him  a  right 
to  claim  a  couple  of  soldi,  which  you  must  pay, 
or  else  have  the  uncomfortable  feeling  that  you 
are  cheating  a  poor  old  man  out  of  his  only  means 
of  livelihood. 

In  one  of  her  short  stories  of  Italian  life,  Ouida 
draws  a  harrowing  picture  of  three  starving 
children  from  the  Roman  Campagna,  who  were 
found  dead  on  the  steps  of  a  church,  because  they 


THE  DISAGREEABLE  ITALIAN        115 

were  not  allowed  to  beg  for  a  crust  of  bread  to 
keep  the  life  within  their  little  bodies.  If  such  a 
law  against  beggars  was  ever  enforced  in  Rome, 
or  any  other  Italian  city,  it  now  seems  to  have 
fallen  into  innocuous  desuetude,  for  you  see 
them  in  all  public  places,  making  the  most  of  their 
sores  and  deformities. 

It  is  only  fair  to  remember,  however,  that  these 
unpleasant  features  of  life  in  Italy  are  largely 
an  inheritance  of  the  past.  They  are  the  result 
of  centuries  of  oppression,  of  poverty  and  mis- 
government.  People  must  live,  and,  in  a 
crowded  country  like  Italy,  the  legitimate  ave- 
nues of  earning  a  living  are  often  very  circum- 
scribed, while  many  of  the  tricks  which  seem  to 
foreigners  to  be  impositions,  are  the  immemorial 
customs  of  the  ages,  and  seem  to  the  Italian  per- 
fectly legitimate  ways  of  earning  a  living.         , 

The  old  "hookers"  on  the  Venetian  canals,  for 
instance,  are  superannuated  gondoliers,  who  can 
no  longer  scull  their  black  boats  through  the 
narrow  canals.  Many  of  them  receive  a  small 
pension,  and  are  allowed  to  supplement  this  by 
"hooking"  passengers  ashore.  Even  the  beggars 
have  immemorial  rights,  which  it  is  difficult  for 
the  government,  with  the  best  intentions,  to  an- 
nul, though  it  has  frequently  tried  to  do  so. 

Among  all  these  beggars  and  semi-impostors 


n6     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

I  have  seldom  seen  any  able-bodied  young  men 
or  women,  and  I  do  not  believe  that  among  the 
emigrants  to  America  will  be  found  many  of 
those  who  live  by  their  wits  or  upon  the  credulity 
of  their  neighbors. 

In  spite  of  the  disagreeable  Italian,  who  some- 
times appears  to  the  traveller  to  be  so  much  in 
evidence,  I  still  believe  that  the  average  emi- 
grant is  industrious,  thrifty  and  upright,  and  that 
we  need  him  quite  as  much  as  he  needs  us. 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE   ITALIAN    OF   THE   NORTH 

It  is  impossible  to  describe  Italians  in  one  gen- 
eral comprehensive  paragraph.  There  are  Ital- 
ians and  Italians,  just  as  there  are  Americans  and 
Americans.  The  north  of  Italy  differs  from  the 
south  as  Massachusetts  differs  from  Mississippi 
or  New  York  from  Texas.  To  describe  a  citizen 
of  Massachusetts  is  not  to  describe  a  typical 
American.  Indeed,  I  do  not  know  that  there  is 
any  typical  American,  since  America  produces 
so  many  types.  Of  Italy  the  same  may  be  said, 
though  her  area  is  so  much  smaller.  But  in  a 
general  way,  and  for  the  sake  of  convenience, 
we  may  learn  something  at  least  of  the  character- 
istics of  Italians  by  describing  the  people  of  the 
north,  of  the  south,  and  of  Sicily. 

The  Italian  of  the  north  doubtless  deserves  his 
reputation  for  being  enterprising,  shrewd,  and 
progressive.  He  is  apt  to  look  down  upon  his 
southern  brother  as  slow,  lazy  and  ignorant,  while 
the  southerner,  from  the  poverty  of  his  meager 
fields,  thinks  of  his  brother  in  the  north  as  grasp- 

117 


n8      OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

ing  and  rapacious,  as  obtaining  undue  govern- 
mental favors  through  the  tariff  laws  for  his  fac- 
tories and  industrial  enterprises,  and  as  escaping 
his  share  of  taxation,  which  falls  so  heavily  upon 
the  farmer  of  the  south. 

Foreigners  who  have  lived  long  in  Italy,  and 
who  are  acquainted  with  both  north  and  south, 
have  assured  me  that  they  like  the  sunny,  good- 
natured  disposition  of  the  southern  Italians  bet- 
ter than  what  they  are  pleased  to  call  the  some- 
what top-lofty  and  sordid  character  of  the  north. 
The  southerner  is  more  dishonest,  they  will  tell 
you,  in  little  things,  but  he  has  not  learned  the 
art  of  robbery  on  a  large  scale  like  the  "tariff- 
fed  barons  of  the  north."  I  give  the  opinion  for 
what  it  is  worth.  Doubtless  all  sections  have  the 
defects  of  their  qualities,  as  well  as  their  virtues, 
and  the  former  unhappy  political  conditions  of 
the  south,  the  conscienceless  tyranny  under  which 
it  lived  so  much  longer  than  the  north,  accounts 
in  large  measure  for  the  difference  in  educational 
and  industrial  standards,  and  for  some  differ- 
ences in  moral  standards  as  well. 

At  any  rate,  the  cities  of  the  north,  whatever 
their  moral  and  social  condition,  are,  in  their  out- 
ward appearance,  much  more  like  the  great  hu- 
man hives  of  America  and  northern  Europe,  than 
are  the  cities  of  the  south.     Milan  and  Turin, 


The  Leading  Waldensian  Church  in  Torre  Pel  lice 


THE  ITALIAN  OF  THE  NORTH       119 

and  some  other  North-Italian  cities  might  be  set 
down  almost  anywhere  in  England  or  America 
without  much  shock  to  their  inhabitants,  and  with 
little  surprise  to  the  people  of  these  countries,  ex- 
cept, perhaps,  as  they  gazed  in  wonder  at  the 
glorious  facade  of  the  Milan  cathedral,  or  the 
gorgeous  tombs  of  the  Scaligeri  in  Verona. 

Genoa  is  a  great  commercial  metropolis  rapidly 
growing  in  importance,  and  this  commercial 
growth  is  constantly  making  it  more  like  its  sis- 
ter cities,  Liverpool,  New  York  or  Copenhagen. 

Venice  must  be  considered  as  in  a  class  by  it- 
self. It  apparently  can  never  grow  young  or 
modern,  however  much  commercial  prosperity  it 
may  enjoy.  Its  dingy,  moth-eaten  palaces,  its 
ill-smelling  canals,  oftentimes  filled  with  garbage 
that  make  the  smaller  ones  seem  like  sewers,  its 
swarms  of  dwarfed,  ragged  and  dirty  degen- 
erates in  the  poorer  sections,  cannot  have  changed 
much  from  century  to  century.  Nevertheless,  in 
spite  of  all  these  mediaeval  drawbacks,  it  is  the 
most  fascinating  city  in  Italy.  There  is  no  ca- 
thedral like  San  Marco,  and  no  square  in  the 
world  like  the  Piazza  San  Marco,  and  in  spite  of 
the  importunate  glass  dealers  and  bead  vendors 
and  lace  makers,  who  try  one's  patience  whenever 
he  walks  abroad,  there  is  probably  no  city  in 
Italy  to  which  the  tourist's  memory  returns  so 


120     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

often  and  with  such  affection,  as  to  the  City  of 
the  Lagoons. 

Rome,  Florence,  Perugia,  Siena  and  cities  of 
that  type  in  Central  Italy,  can  hardly  be  classed 
with  either  the  north  or  the  south.  They  all  have 
their  peculiar  charms,  but  they  are  charms  that 
appeal  to  the  student  and  the  traveller,  to  the 
archaeologist  and  the  lover  of  art.  They  would 
have  the  same  interest  for  him  if  they  were  found 
in  Russia  or  South  America,  for  it  is  not  what 
the  people  of  the  present  day  are  doing,  but  what 
the  people  of  the  past  have  done,  that  attracts  vis- 
itors to  their  borders.  They  are  not  typical  Ital- 
ian cities,  because,  though  one  finds  all  sorts  of 
Italians  in  them,  they  are  cities  that  live  largely 
upon  the  prowess  of  their  ancestors  rather  than 
upon  the  enterprise  and  industry  of  the  people  of 
to-day. 

Nevertheless,  all  these  cities,  and  a  dozen  oth- 
ers that  might  be  mentioned,  are  instinct  with  the 
spirit  of  New  Italy.  They  have  caught  some- 
thing of  the  fire  of  the  reformers,  and  the  spirit 
of  the  new  age.  Almost  any  one  of  them  would 
be  ashamed  to  get  along  without  a  Via  Garibaldi, 
or  a  Via  Cavour  or  a  "Street  of  the  Twentieth  of 
September,"  while  from  their  most  important 
public  squares  the  statue  of  Victor  Emanuel  II, 
with  his  fierce  moustache,  is  pretty  sure  to  look 


THE  ITALIAN  OF  THE  NORTH       121 

down  upon  one  from  the  back  of  a  prancing 
charger. 

Rome,  indeed,  has  become  one  of  the  great  cap- 
itals of  the  world,  and,  though  it  relies  none  the 
less  upon  its  antiquities  for  its  attractiveness,  it 
is  constantly  adding  to  them  new  buildings  and 
new  streets,  which  are  worthy  of  its  glorious  past. 
I  do  not  think  there  is  a  more  magnificent  memo- 
rial in  the  world  than  that  to  Victor  Emanuel, 
when  we  consider  its  marble  colonnades  and  gush- 
ing fountains  which  serve  as  such  an  effective 
setting  for  the  glittering  golden  statue  of  the  first 
king  of  United  Italy  in  the  Piazza  Venezzia  at 
the  end  of  the  Corso. 

But  when  all  these  exceptions  are  made,  it  still 
remains  true  that  the  cities  and  citizens  of  north- 
ern Italy  approach  more  nearly  to  the  type  of 
the  cities  and  citizens  of  other  northern  countries, 
as  the  years  go  by. 

Manufacturing  and  commerce  are  great  level- 
lers, either  up  or  down,  as  the  reader  may  choose 
to  call  it;  at  least  they  are  constantly  promoting 
a  similar  type  of  humanity  on  both  sides  of  the 
Atlantic.  The  Italian  of  these  northern  cities  is 
alert,  pushing,  enterprising,  like  his  brother  who 
is  engaged  in  the  same  pursuits  in  London  or 
Chicago. 

Indeed  the  northern  Italian  seems  to  me  far 


122      OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

more  like  the  typical  American  business  man, 
than  like  the  commercial  Englishman.  He  is  not 
so  wedded  to  his  "top  hat,"  or  his  afternoon  tea, 
for  instance,  and  the  throng  of  merchants  in 
Milan  or  Turin  in  their  business  suits  and  soft 
hats,  the  best  of  which,  by  the  way,  are  exported 
to  America  in  large  numbers,  could  hardly  be 
distinguished  from  a  similar  throng  in  the  streets 
of  Boston  or  Philadelphia. 

There  is  one  section  of  northern  Italy,  how- 
ever, which  has  furnished  so  much  leaven  for 
the  rest  of  the  country  and  the  world  that  it  can- 
not be  dismissed  without  a  few  paragraphs.  I 
refer  to  the  little  section  at  the  very  north  of  the 
Map  of  Italy,  under  the  shadow  of  the  Cottian 
Alps  where  lie  the  Waldensian  Valleys,  the  Val- 
ley of  the  Luserna  and  the  Pellice,  the  Valley  of 
the  Angrogna,  and  the  Valley  of  San  Martino. 
There  is  no  more  picturesque  and  beautiful  scen- 
ery in  the  world  than  is  found  in  these  valleys, 
and  the  heroic  people  who  live  in  them,  and  who 
at  any  time  during  the  last  fifteen  hundred  years 
have  been  willing  to  die  for  their  faith,  add  a 
supreme  touch  of  interest  to  this  part  of  Italy. 

The  Waldensian  Church  is  undoubtedly  right 
in  claiming  to  be  the  oldest  Protestant  church  in 
the  world,  a  church  that  has  never  been  reformed, 
because  it  never  needed  reformation,  since,  as 


THE  ITALIAN  OF  THE  NORTH       123 

they  claim,  it  has  never  wandered  from  the  true 
faith. 

The  story  of  the  Waldensians  is  as  romantic, 
as  full  of  hair-breadth  'scapes  and  thrilling  inci- 
dents as  any  page  in  the  world's  history.  They 
claim  to  have  been  in  existence  long  before  Peter 
Waldo,  who  gave  them  his  name,  and  brought 
them  to  the  attention  of  the  outside  world.  The 
history  of  the  religious  life  of  Europe  for  eight 
centuries  at  least  cannot  be  written  without  fre- 
quent allusions  to  the  Waldensians. 

Peter  Waldo  was  awakened  to  his  spiritual  con- 
dition by  the  tragedy  of  a  friend,  with  whom  he 
was  talking,  dropping  dead  by  his  side.  He  be- 
gan to  study  his  Bible,  and  to  inquire  earnestly  of 
the  priest,  "Which  is  the  way  to  God?"  The 
priest  finally  gave  him  the  same  answer  that  the 
Master  gave  to  the  rich  young  ruler,  "If  thou 
dost  wish  to  be  perfect,  go  sell  what  thou  hast, 
and  give  it  to  the  poor."  Peter  Waldo  took  the 
command  literally,  gave  his  wife  her  portion  of 
the  estate,  and  divided  the  rest  of  his  money 
among  the  poor. 

Such  a  course  was  considered  extravagant  and 
erratic,  and  half  crazy,  just  as  Tolstoy's  doctrine 
is  considered  by  some  people  of  to-day.  Never- 
theless, Waldo's  example  and  teaching  had  great 
effect,  in  spite  of  his  excommunication  by  the 


124     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

Bishop  of  Lyons,  and,  gradually,  a  large  number 
of  earnest  spirits  were  attracted  to  his  standard, 
while,  after  his  death,  his  doctrines  and  practice 
obtained  a  larger  and  larger  following. 

The  Waldensians  were  particularly  useful  in 
keeping  alive  the  knowledge  of  the  Bible  and  in 
circulating  its  truths,  when  the  Book  was  for- 
bidden by  the  ecclesiastical  authorities.  Waldo 
himself  engaged  some  priests  to  translate  the 
Psalms,  and  the  Gospels  and  other  portions  of 
the  New  Testament  into  the  language  of  the  peo- 
ple, and  large  sections  of  these  Scriptures,  he  and 
his  followers  learned  by  heart. 

The  following  interesting  report  is  given  by 
one  of  the  Inquisitors  who  was  sent  to  extermi- 
nate this  religion,  of  the  way  in  which  it  was 
propagated  among  the  common  people: 

They  would  travel  as  pedlers,  selling  silks  and 
pearls,  rings  and  veils.  After  a  purchase  has 
been  made,  if  the  pedler  be  asked,  "Have  you 
anything  else  to  sell?"  he  answers,  "I  have  jewels 

rmore  precious  than  these  things;  I  would  give 
them  to  you  if  you  promise  not  to  betray  me  to 
the  clergy."  On  getting  the  promise,  he  says,  "I 
have  a  pearl  so  brilliant  that  you  can  learn  by  it 

i  to  love  God;  I  have  another  so  splendid  that  it 
kindles  the  love  of  God,"  and  so  on.  Next  he 
quotes  such  a  Scripture  passage  as  this,  "Woe 
unto  you  that  devour  widows'  houses !"  and  when 


THE  ITALIAN  OF  THE  NORTH       125 

asked  to  whom  these  denunciations  apply,  he  re- 
plies, "To  the  priests  and  monks."  Then  he  con- 
trasts the  dominant  Church  with  his  own. 
"Your  doctors  are  ostentatious  in  manners  and 
dress;  they  love  the  highest  seats  at  table,  and 
desire  to  be  called  Masters;  but  our  ministers  are 
not  such  masters.  Your  priests  are  unchaste; 
but  each  one  of  us  has  his  wife,  with  whom  we 
live  chastely.  They  fight  and  kill  and  burn  the 
poor;  we,  on  the  contrary,  endure  persecution  for 
righteousness'  sake."  After  some  such  address 
the  heretic  asks,  ''Examine  and  consider  which  is 
the  more  perfect  religion  and  the  purest  faith, 
whether  ours  or  that  of  the  Romish  Church." 
And  thus  the  hearer  being  turned  from  the  Cath- 
olic faith  by  such  errors,  forsakes  us. 

Upon  this  incident,  alluded  to  in  the  Inquisi- 
tor's report,  Whittier  founded  his  beautiful  poem 
"The  Vaudois  Teacher."  This  sturdy  body  of 
Christians  endures  to  the  present  day,  and  is  in- 
deed growing  stronger  and  more  influential,  be- 
ing the  chief  Protestant  factor  in  the  religious 
life  of  Italy. 

A  few  years  ago  they  dedicated  a  new  and 
magnificent  church  in  Rome,  the  gift  of  a  wealthy 
and  benevolent  American  lady,  Mrs.  John  Stew- 
art Kennedy,  and  their  influence  is  felt  not  only 
in  their  beloved  Waldensian  Valleys,  but  through- 
out the  whole  length  and  breadth  of  Italy,  and 


126     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

even  in  the  remote  districts  of  Sicily.  They  still 
maintain  many  of  their  early  characteristics,  and 
are  justly  proud  of  the  memory  of  their  martyred 
ancestors.  Milton's  famous  sonnet  on  the 
slaughter  of  the  Waldensians,  in  1655,  is  a  classic 
that  tells  something  of  the  sufferings  and  the 
heroism  of  this  ancient  people. 

Avenge !  O  Lord,  Thy  slaughtered  saints,  whose  bones 
Lie  scattered  on  the  Alpine  mountains  cold! 
Ev'n  them  who  kept  Thy  truth,  so  pure  of  old, 

When  all  our  fathers  worshipped  stocks  and  stones, 

Forget  not!     In  Thy  book  record  their  groans; 
Who  were  Thy  sheep,  and  in  their  ancient  fold 
Slain  by  the  bloody  Piedmontese,  that  rolled 

Mother  with  infant  down  the  rocks.     Their  moans — 
The  vales  redoubled  to  the  hills,  and  they 

To  heaven.     Their  martyred  blood  and  ashes  sow 
O'er  all  the  Italian  fields,  where  still  doth  sway 

The  triple  tyrant ;  that  from  these  may  grow 
A  hundred  fold,  who,  having  learned  Thy  way, 

Early  may  fly  the  Babylonian  woe ! 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE   ITALIAN   OF  THE   SOUTH 

The  Italian  of  the  south  is  of  more  practical 
interest  to  the  American  than  his  brother  of  the 
north,  since  the  great  majority  of  our  Italian 
immigrants  hail  from  the  provinces  to  the  south 
of  Rome.  Thus  while  in  a  recent  year  something 
over  10,000  emigrants  went  to  the  United  States 
from  Piedmont,  some  2500  from  Liguria,  and 
less  than  6000  from  Lombardy,  the  Campania, 
which  includes  the  region  about  Naples,  sent  us 
over  51,000,  or  about  three  times  as  many  as 
the  three  great  northern  provinces  put  together. 
At  the  same  time  the  Abruzzi,  which  is  a  province 
to  the  north  of  Campania,  sent  us  over  31,000 
emigrants,  and  Calabria,  the  most  southerly  prov- 
ince of  Italy  proper,  dismissed  over  25,000  of  her 
citizens  to  our  shores. 

Of  course  the  economic  reasons  for  this  tre- 
mendous emigration  from  the  south  are  easily 
understood.  The  southern  provinces  are  poorer 
than  the  northern,  far  more  crowded  with  those 

who  are  living  from  hand  to  mouth,  and  with 

127 


&28     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

far  smaller  opportunities  for  the  common  people 
to  rise  in  the  world.  To  such  people  America 
is  naturally  the  land  of  their  dreams.  It  is  the 
Continent  of  Opportunity,  and  the  uncle,  or 
brother,  or  cousin  who  has  succeeded  in  the  new 
world,  does  not  find  it  difficult  to  beckon  the 
brother  or  uncle  or  cousin,  who  was  left  behind, 
across  the  sea. 

It  must  also  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  Italian 
of  the  north  has  other  outlets  for  his  energies  in 
foreign  countries  nearer  at  home,  for  during  the 
same  year  nearly  60,000  Lombardians  went  to 
Central  Europe,  to  countries  like  Switzerland, 
Germany,  Austria  and  France,  while  almost  100,- 
000  Venetians  (people  of  the  province  of  Vene- 
tia)  found  temporary  homes  in  the  same  coun- 
tries. But  these  men  and  women  largely  return 
to  their  Italian  homes,  after  the  harvest  seasons 
in  central  Europe,  and  can  hardly  be  considered 
emigrants  in  the  same  sense  as  those  who  go  to 
America,  who,  for  the  most  part,  burn  their 
bridges  behind  them,  or,  to  change  the  figure,  take 
their  lares  and  penates  with  them. 

To  Americans,  therefore,  southern  Italy  and 
Sicily  must  be  considered  of  supreme  interest, 
since  it  is  from  these  sections  that  are  coming  and 
will  come  the  influences,  which,  for  better  or 
worse,  will  affect  our  national  character, 


THE  ITALIAN  OF  THE  SOUTH        129 

The  people  of  southern  Italy  have  long  illus- 
trated the  old  proverb,  "Give  a  dog  a  bad  name, 
and  hang  him,"  and  too  few  inquire  whether  the 
poor  dog  really  deserves  the  bad  name,  and  the 
capital  punishment  that  results  from  it. 

For  instance,  an  influential  author  writing 
about  the  condition  of  the  southern  provinces  a 
few  years  ago,  conditions  which,  as  compared 
with  the  industrial  conditions  in  the  north  have 
not  greatly  changed,  declares  that,  "It  is  easy  to 
illustrate  the  contrast  between  the  industrial  pro- 
gressive, democratic  north,  and  the  agricultural, 
stagnant,  feudal  south  where  (leaving  aside  the 
buffer  central  states)  illiterates  are  nearly  thrice 
as  many,  where  there  are  three  or  four  times  as 
many  murders  and  violent  assaults,  where  gam- 
bling in  the  State  Lottery  is  twice  as  rampant, 
where  the  death  rate  is  higher,  where  books  and 
newspapers  are  comparatively  rare,  and  postal 
correspondence  is  less  than  half.  Here  the  pov- 
erty of  Italy  becomes  destitution.  The  wealth 
per  head  is  only  half  as  great.  The  returns  of 
land-tax,  income-tax,  stamp-duties,  consumption 
of  tobacco,  witness  to  its  relative  inferiority. 
The  land  is  comparatively  a  monopoly  of  the  few. 
Individualism  runs  riot;  there  is  little  mutual 
trust,  or  co-operation,  and  industry  goes  limping 
in  consequence.     It  is  a  land  for  the  most  part 


130     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

given  over  to  inertia,  with  little  ambition  of  better 
things." 

But  there  is  another  side  to  this  dark  tapestry. 
It  is  these  very  conditions  that  drive  the  southern 
Italian  to  our  shores,  and  to  say  that  a  land  is 
stagnant  and  unenterprising  and  given  to  violence 
and  gambling  is  not  to  say  that  all  the  inhabitants 
can  be  thus  described.  To  some  sections  of  our 
own  country  these  adjectives  might  be  applied. 
It  is  the  very  people  who  are  not  stagnant  or  un- 
enterprising who  buy  tickets  for  America.  The 
fact  that  they  do  this  is  proof  positive  of  a  cer- 
tain degree  of  enterprise,  and  though  the  mur- 
derer or  other  criminal  may  occasionally  slip 
through  the  meshes  of  the  law  and  embark  for 
America,  with  the  present  stringent  regulations, 
and  their  strict  enforcement  he  is  not  often  likely 
to  do  so. 

The  record  of  every  emigrant  is  well  known 
to  the  inspectors,  and  steamship  companies  will 
not  often  take  the  risk  of  providing  double  pas- 
sage for  a  criminal,  or  one  diseased,  when  they 
remember  the  hawk-eyed  inspector  who  will  greet 
them  at  Ellis  Island.  A  country  that  would  not 
admit  a  Maxim  Gorky,  who  is  considered  by  some 
the  greatest  living  author,  because  of  his  matri- 
monial irregularities,  and  which  bars  out  a  cele- 
brated actress  for  the  same  reason,  is  not  likely 


THE  ITALIAN  OF  THE  SOUTH        131 

to  be  very  lenient  to  less  distinguished  immi- 
grants. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  immigrant  from 
southern  Italy  is  usually  poor,  and  often  in  the 
past  has  been  illiterate,  but  these  are  by  no  means 
heinous  sins,  when  we  consider  his  lack  of  oppor- 
tunities, nor  are  these  the  kind  of  men  whom  a 
country  that  needs  their  brawn  and  muscle,  and 
that  can  remedy  their  defects  in  education,  should 
bar  from  its  shores.  Industry,  thrift,  temperance, 
enterprise, — these  are  qualities  which  may  well 
make  up  for  any  amount  of  poverty  or  illiteracy, 
and  these  are  the  qualities  which  the  immigrant 
from  southern  Italy  largely  brings  with  him  when 
he  seeks  a  new  home.  The  new  literacy  law  will 
doubtless  keep  out  many  a  worthy,  hard-working 
Italian  whose  only  fault  is  a  lack  of  opportunity 
to  learn. 

That  his  poverty  is  indeed  often  extreme  is 
shown  by  some  statistics  carefully  gathered  con- 
cerning the  expenses  of  a  day  laborer's  family  of 
five  persons  in  a  region  to  the  south  of  Rome. 
Such  a  family  it  was  found,  on  the  average,  would 
eat  each  week  about  twenty-one  pounds  of  wheat 
flour,  seventeen  pounds  of  Indian  meal,  nineteen 
cents  worth  of  oil  and  condiments,  four  cents 
worth  of  meat  and  bacon,  four  eggs,  half  a  pound 
of  salt,  while  the  total  cost  of  living  expenses  of 


132     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

this  family  of  five  per  week  would  be  $2.13,  or 
about  forty-two  cents  for  each  person.  This 
would  include  the  weekly  proportion  of  the  $9.00 
a  year  spent  for  clothes  and  shoes,  and  the  $2.60 
a  year  spent  for  firewood.  These  figures,  which 
are  the  actual  budgets  of  actual  families,  are  of 
themselves  eloquently  convincing  as  to  the  rea- 
sons why  the  steerage  accommodations  of  the 
emigrant  ships  that  turn  their  prows  to  America 
were,  before  the  war,  crowded  to  the  utmost. 
Doubtless  the  world-wide  rise  in  the  cost  of  liv- 
ing vitiates  these  figures,  but  as  compared  with 
other  countries  the  proportions  remain  true. 

Let  me  describe  what  a  traveller  actually  sees 
as  he  journeys  through  the  provinces  of  southern 
Italy,  not  on  a  rapid  express  train,  with  an  en- 
trancing novel  in  his  hand  at  least  to  divide  his 
attention  with  the  entrancing  scenery,  but  as  he 
goes  to  some  out  of  the  way  place  which  the  foot 
of  the  tourist  rarely  treads,  and  where  he  sees  his 
future  fellow  countrymen  as  they  actually  are  in 
their  own  homes.  I  have  made  some  such  jour- 
neys on  purpose  to  get  a  first-hand  impression  of 
the  Italian  of  the  south. 

Let  us  go  first  to  the  inland  city  of  Benevento. 
It  is  a  place  of  some  20,000  inhabitants,  lying 
southeast  of  Naples,  and  is  famous  in  ancient 
story,  as  are  so  many  of  the  little-known  towns  of 


THE  ITALIAN  OF  THE  SOUTH       133 

the  Italy  of  to-day.  Through  this  town  passed 
the  great  Appian  Way,  over  part  of  which  St. 
Paul  made  his  toilsome  journey  when,  as  a  pris- 
oner, chained  to  a  Roman  soldier,  he  travelled 
from  Puteoli  to  Rome.  Here  in  Benevento 
we  find  a  splendid  Triumphal  Arch  erected  to 
Trajan,  as  fine  as  any  in  Rome,  and  even  in  a  bet- 
ter state  of  preservation  than  the  Arch  of  Con- 
stantine  or  that  of  Titus.  Trajan  himself  never 
saw  it,  or  the  marble  delineations  of  his  triumph, 
with  which  it  is  covered,  for  he  died  before  re- 
turning from  the  victory  which  the  arch  cele- 
brates. 

We  started  from  the  seashore  city  of  Salerno, 
and  for  many  miles  as  the  road  led  northward 
through  the  hills  we  were  impressed  with  the  in- 
credible patience,  perseverance  and  industry, 
which  in  many  places  alone  made  agriculture  at 
all  possible.  The  barren  hillsides  were  often  ter- 
raced almost  to  the  very  top  with  twenty,  thirty 
or  forty  long  parallel  lines  of  terraces,  built  up 
with  stones  to  hold  the  soil  from  slipping  back 
into  the  valley. 

But  the  soil,  though  meager  in  quantity,  was 
evidently  rich  in  quality,  for  vegetables  of  all 
kinds,  vines  and  olive  trees  flourish  on  these 
mountain  sides.  Many  of  these  hills  of  south- 
ern Italy  remind  me  more  of  the  terraced  Andes 


134     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

in  Peru  than  any  others  that  I  have  seen,  ter- 
races built  by  the  industrious  Incas  before  the 
disastrous  and  cruel  Spanish  invasion.  The  dif- 
ference is  that  the  terraces  of  the  Incas  are  but 
the  ruins  of  the  industry  of  a  past  civilization. 
Since  the  Spanish  invasion  they  have  become  dry 
and  verdureless,  but  the  terraces  of  southern 
Italy  are  fresh  and  green  in  their  spring  foliage, 
and  abundant  in  the  golden  fruitage  of  autumn. 

Evidently  the  people  have  made  the  best  of 
such  resources  as  they  have.  Now  and  then  the 
train  makes  its  way  through  a  long  and  fertile 
valley,  every  square  foot  of  which  is  cultivated. 
Great  teams  of  white  oxen  with  their  long, 
branching  horns,  are  ploughing  the  mellow  soil, 
or  twenty  peasants  in  a  row,  both  men  and 
women,  with  their  gleaming,  sharp-pointed 
spades,  are  turning  the  soil  for  the  spring  plant- 
ing. 

The  words  of  the  Psalmist  never  seem  more 
appropriate  than  when  one  looks  upon  these  rich 
valleys,  and  these  girdled  hills  made  so  productive 
by  the  infinite  toil  of  the  peasant.  David,  if  he 
wrote  the  sixty-fifth  Psalm,  it  would  seem  might 
have  been  looking  at  these  same  charming  south 
Italian  landscapes  when  he  wrote,  "Thou  crown- 
est  the  year  with  thy  goodness;  and  thy  paths 
drop  fatness.     They  drop  upon  the  pastures  of 


THE  ITALIAN  OF  THE  SOUTH        135 

the  wilderness,  and  the  hills  are  girded  with  joy. 
The  pastures  are  clothed  with  flocks ;  the  valleys 
also  are  covered  over  with  grain ;  they  shout  for 
joy,  they  also  sing." 

When  we  reach  Benevento,  it  must  be  admitted 
that  some  of  the  poetry  disappears  from  the 
scene,  especially  while  we  are  shown  into  a  dirty 
and  stuffy  room  in  the  "best"  hotel  in  the  city. 
Benevento  has  one  broad  street,  which,  of  course, 
is  called  the  Corso  Garibaldi.  The  side  streets 
are  narrow,  mean  and  dirty  alleys.  Besides  the 
great  Triumphal  Arch  of  Trajan  the  city  pos- 
sesses some  objects  of  interest  to  the  student  and 
traveller,  like  the  old  castle,  now  the  municipal 
building,  the  ancient  cathedral  with  its  bronze 
doors,  etc.,  but  it  is  modern  Benevento  that  most 
interests  us. 

We  see  a  curious  mixture  of  things  modern 
and  ancient.  We  are  reminded  of  America  and 
Italy  both,  at  every  turn.  From  one  shop  we 
see  great  rings  of  bread,  or  long  loaves  tied 
to  a  pole,  a  dozen  or  more  on  one  stick,  while 
bladders  full  of  lard,  and  curious  looking  piles  of 
cheese  remind  us  that  we  are  still  in  the  heart  of 
Italy.  The  next  store  may  look  quite  like  an 
American  shop,  as  seen  in  a  town  of  the  same 
size,  with  the  same  variety  of  miscellaneous 
goods,  and  the  American  influence  is  even  seen 


136     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

in  the  prices  of  the  hats  in  the  shop  window, 
marked  "one  dolari,  five  and  one  half  lire,"  the 
sign  evidently  meant  to  attract  the  attention  of 
the  returned  emigrant,  who  could  reckon  in  dol- 
lars and  cents  as  well  as  in  lire  and  soldi. 

I  saw  no  saloons  in  the  American  sense  of  the 
word,  an  immense  improvement  in  that  respect 
over  the  average  town  of  twenty  thousand  in 
America  before  prohibition  abolished  the  saloon, 
and  though  the  streets  were  crowded  with  people, 
and  there  was  much  hilarity  and  merriment  far 
into  the  evening,  I  saw  no  drunkenness.  This 
town,  let  us  remember,  is  in  Foggia,  which  is  con- 
sidered one  of  the  backward  sections  of  Italy. 

The  next  day  we  travelled  on  to  Telese,  a  dirty 
and  forlorn  little  village,  and  alighted  from  the 
train  at  a  station  which  was  in  every  way  worthy 
of  the  village  which  it  served,  for  it  was  as  dirty 
and  forsaken  as  could  well  be  imagined.  The 
cold  spring  rain  came  down  spitefully  in  showers, 
and  the  wind  whistled  through  the  broken  panes 
of  glass,  for  there  was  scarcely  a  whole  one  in 
the  station.  The  third  class  waiting  room  was 
for  some  reason  inaccessible,  and  the  first  class 
was  occupied  by  peasants  who  dozed  and  smoked 
and  spat  in  turn,  though  some  of  them  seemed  to 
sleep  and  spit  at  the  same  time. 

A  few  miles  bevond  Telese  lies  Castelvenere, 


The  Leaning  Towers  of  Bologna 


THE  ITALIAN  OF  THE  SOUTH        137 

the  little  hamlet  for  which  we  were  bound,  and 
here  were  most  evident  some  of  the  causes  which 
drive  the  people  to  America.  The  soil  in  many 
parts  seemed  very  poor,  and  some  of  it  was 
actually  uncultivable.  Some  of  the  fields  and 
hillsides  looked  as  rocky  and  scrubby  as  the  poor- 
est hardscrabble  acres  in  New  Hampshire,  but 
even  in  these  a  few  goats  were  browsing,  and 
wherever  there  was  a  chance  to  "stick  in  a  tree," 
or  plant  a  seed,  the  most  was  made  of  it.  Some 
of  the  hillsides,  wherever  soil  was  procurable, 
were  terraced,  and  the  people  who  live  here,  even 
to  wring  the  hardest  kind  of  subsistence  from 
the  soil,  must  be  industrious  and  patient  to  the 
last  degree. 

Much  has  been  written  of  "Brave  Little  Hol- 
land," whose  inhabitants  have  wrested  her  soil 
from  the  sea.  With  equal  truth,  the  same  ad- 
jectives might  be  applied  to  this  part  of  Italy 
where  the  people,  when  we  consider  the  increased 
burden  of  taxation  which  they  bear,  must  have 
a  much  harder  time  than  in  Llolland  to  make  both 
ends  meet. 

The  hamlet  of  Castelvenere  consists  of  one 
street,  lined  with  tall  stone  houses,  dirty,  cold 
and  cheerless,  which  seemed  especially  gloomy, 
in  the  driving  rain  which  greeted  us  on  our  ap- 
proach.    How  any  cheerful  being  could  come  out 


138     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

of  such  tomblike  structures,  it  was  hard  to  imag- 
ine, and  yet  the  children  looked  happy  and  hearty, 
and  mud  pies  were  evidently  as  dear  to  their 
hearts  as  in  more  genial  localities. 

As  we  drove  back  to  the  station  at  Telese  we 
found  only  one  man  in  the  vicinity  who  could 
speak  any  English,  and  that  very  much  fractured. 
He  told  us  that  he  had  been  two  months  in  Amer- 
ica and  was  going  back  again  as  soon  as  he  could. 
His  reasons  for  preferring  America,  were,  I  re- 
gret to  say,  more  mercenary  than  patriotic. 
"Italy  no  good,"  was  his  remark.  "In  America, 
two  dollars  there  every  day ;  in  Italia  two  or  three 
lire"  (forty  or  sixty  cents).  The  emigration 
agent  in  this  vicinity  apparently  does  a  land-office 
business.  His  name  is  Giuseppi  Venditti.  He 
is  evidently  the  chief  man  of  the  neighborhood,  a 
good  Waldensian  who  has  built  a  chapel  for  his 
faith,  near  his  own  house.  On  every  blank  wall 
we  saw  his  name  on  huge  posters,  and  though  we 
were  not  fortunate  enough  to  find  the  gentleman 
himself  at  home,  his  hospitable  wife  urged  us  to 
enter  their  home,  the  best  in  all  Castelvenere,  and 
share  their  colasione.  We  were  not  able  to  ac- 
cept her  invitation,  but,  as  we  looked  around  upon 
the  poverty-stricken  country,  we  felt  sure  that 
her  husband  was  showing  his  practical  religious 


THE  ITALIAN  OF  THE  SOUTH        139 

faith,  not  only  in  building  a  chapel,  but  in  making 
the  way  easy  for  some  of  his  countrymen  to  reach 
more  fertile,  if  not  fairer,  fields,  in  the  lands 
across  the  seas. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE   WORLD'S   WINTER   PLAYGROUND 

More  and  more  every  year,  is  the  beautiful 
island  of  Sicily  becoming  the  winter  playground 
of  the  world.  Since  brigandage  has  been  so 
largely  suppressed,  and  the  traveller  is  safe  in 
any  part  of  the  island,  it  is  becoming  each  year 
more  popular  with  tourists  who  are  looking  for  a 
balmy  and  genial  climate,  charming  scenery,  and 
glimpses  of  men  and  things,  customs  and  cos- 
tumes with  which  they  are  unfamiliar  at  home. 

Sicily  has  indeed  many  attractions  for  men  of 

different  tastes.     The  archaeologist  will  rejoice 

in  the  antiquities  of  Syracuse  and  Girgenti.     The 

lover  of  history  will  gladly  tread  in  the  footsteps 

of  the  leaders  of  many  races,  who  have  given  to 

Sicily  three  thousand  years  of  recorded  and  often 

thrilling  history.     Says  Freeman,  the  historian, 

"The  greatest  powers  and  nations  of  the  world 

have  in  several  ages  fought  in  Sicily  and  for 

Sicily.     Their  Sicilian  warfare  determined  their 

history  elsewhere.     In  this  way,  the  history  of 

Sicily  is  one  of  the  longest  and  most  unbroken 

histories  in  Europe." 

140 


WORLD'S  WINTER  PLAYGROUND     141 

The  mathematician  and  the  inventor  will  make 
his  way  to  Syracuse  and  gaze  with  especial  in- 
terest on  the  striking-  statue  of  Archimedes,  with 
his  burning  glass  and  his  screw,  and  will  remem- 
ber that  here  lived  and  fought  and  died,  in  the 
defence  of  his  native  city,  the  great  pioneer  of 
inventors,  who  declared  that  if  he  had  but  a  place 
to  stand,  a  lever  long  enough  and  a  fulcrum 
strong  enough,  he  could  move  the  world.  The 
mere  lover  of  beautiful  scenery,  who  is  off  for  a 
happy  holiday  and  who  cares  little  for  archaeol- 
ogy, or  history,  or  mathematics,  or  art,  will  go 
to  Taormina,  and  will  gaze  in  rapture  on  the  mag- 
nificent view  of  sea  and  shore  there  spread  out 
before  him. 

The  art  lover,  too,  will  find  much  to  attract  him 
in  some  of  the  cities,  especially  in  the  magnificent 
mosaics  of  Palermo,  and  the  man  who  knows  his 
Bible  will  be  glad  to  remember  that  St.  Paul,  him- 
self, spent  three  days  in  Syracuse,  after  his  tem- 
pestuous voyage  across  the  Mediterranean  and 
his  shipwreck  on  Malta,  when  on  his  way  with 
his  soldier  guard  to  imprisonment  and  martyr- 
dom in  Rome.  Thus  Sicily,  unlike  many  holiday 
resorts,  holds  peculiar  joys  for  all  sorts  and  con- 
ditions of  people,  and  we  do  not  wonder  at  its 
growing  popularity,  or  that  its  attractions  bring 
tourists  from  the  ends  of  the  earth  to  its  shore. 


142     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

The  island  is  a  little  larger  than  the  state  of 
Massachusetts,  but  in  other  respects  is  about  as 
far  removed  from  the  old  Puritan  Common- 
wealth as  can  well  be  imagined,  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  thousands  of  Sicilians  have  often  in  a 
single  year  sought  the  hospitable  shores  of  Mas- 
sachusetts Bay.  Instead  of  a  recorded  history  of 
less  than  three  hundred  years,  like  the  Land  of 
the  Pilgrims,  Sicily,  as  I  have  said,  has  a  recorded 
history  of  over  three  thousand  years.  Instead 
of  an  early  ancestry  almost  entirely  English,  like 
Massachusetts,  she  has  a  mixed  ancestry,  drawn 
from  more  than  a  dozen  different  and  powerful 
nationalities  of  the  ancient  world.  Instead  of 
the  characteristically  sturdy  apple  tree  of  the 
Bay  State,  Sicily  produces  the  more  delicate  and 
tender  orange,  lemon,  fig,  loquot  and  olive,  and 
she  replaces  the  pine  tree  with  the  palm. 

But  more  particularly  in  her  institutions,  and 
in  the  every  day  life  of  her  people,  is  Sicily  at 
the  furthest  remove  from  a  typical  American 
state.  Until  recently  she  has  been  terribly  mis- 
governed, and  deprived  of  almost  every  sem- 
blance of  self-rule,  and  a  few  years  of  compara- 
tively good  government  cannot  hope  to  overcome 
the  tyrannies  and  corruptions  of  centuries. 

From  this  island,  small  in  area,  but  occupying 
so  large  a  place  in  the  world's  history,  have  come, 


WORLD'S  WINTER  PLAYGROUND     143 

and  will  come  again,  tens  of  thousands  of  her 
sturdiest  and  most  enterprising  peasantry  every 
year  to  our  shores.  Its  history,  therefore,  and 
its  people  and  their  characteristics  may  well  be  of 
peculiar  interest  to  the  American. 

Even  before  we  step  on  Sicilian  soil,  as  we  ap- 
proach the  Straits  of  Messina,  we  are  reminded 
that  we  are  coming  to  a  classic  land,  a  land  of 
myth  and  story  and  poetry,  for  at  the  very  gate- 
way of  the  Straits,  which  separate  Sicily  from 
the  mainland  of  Italy,  we  are  met  by  Scylla  and 
Charybdis,  the  dreadful  rock  and  whirlpool  of  an- 
cient times,  which  steam  power  and  a  better 
knowledge  of  navigation  have  shorn  of  all  their 
terrors,  and  at  the  same  time  of  all  their  romance. 
It  may  be  interesting  to  the  reader  to  recall  Ho- 
mer's account  of  the  Rock  and  the  Whirlpool, 
before  we  further  introduce  him  to  the  Island 
which  they  so  long  guarded.  Writing  of  Scylla, 
Homer  said, 

The  rock  is  smooth  and  sheer,  as  it  were  pol- 
ished, and  in  the  midst  of  the  cliff  is  a  dim  cave 
turned  to  Erebus,  toward  the  place  of  darkness, 
whereby  ye  shall  steer  your  hollow  ship,  noble 
Odysseus.  Not  with  an  arrow  from  a  bow  might 
a  man  in  his  strength  reach  from  his  hollow  ship 
into  that  deep  cavern ;  and  therein  dwelleth  Scylla 
yelping  horribly.     Her  voice  indeed  is  no  greater 


144     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

than  the  voice  of  a  new-born  whelp,  but  a  dread- 
ful monster  is  she,  nor  would  any  look  on  her 
gladly,  not  if  it  were  a  god  that  met  her.  Verily 
she  hath  twelve  feet  dangling  down,  and  six  necks 
exceeding  long;  and  on  each  a  hideous  head,  and 
therein  three  rows  of  teeth  set  thick  and  close, 
full  of  black  death.  Up  to  her  middle  she  is 
sunk,  far  down  in  the  hollow  cave,  but  forth  she 
holds  her  head  from  the  dreadful  gulf,  and  there 
she  fishes,  swooping  round  the  rock,  for  dolphins 
or  sea-dogs,  or  whatso  greater  beast  she  may 
anywhere  take. 

And  here  is  Homer's  description  of  Charybdis, 
which  lies  on  the  Sicilian  side  of  the  Strait,  while 
Scylla  keeps  guard  on  the  Calabrian  side.  Of 
this  rock,  at  whose  base  lay  the  dreaded  whirl- 
pool, Homer  wrote : 

Thou  couldst  send  an  arrow  across.  And 
thereon  is  a  great  fig  tree  growing,  in  fullest  leaf, 
and  beneath  it  mighty  Charybdis  sucks  down 
black  water,  for  thrice  a  day  she  spurts  it  forth, 
and  thrice  a  day  she  sucks  it  down  in  terrible 
wise. 

Tame  and  peaceful  enough  are  these  ancient 
terrors  to-day.  But  a  more  real  enemy  of  man- 
kind looms  in  view  as  we  gaze  southward  from 
Messina,  to  the  mighty,  snow-capped  volcano  of 
^Etna.     The  Sicilians  may  well  live  in  dread  of 


o 

0) 


WORLD'S  WINTER  PLAYGROUND      145 

this  monster,  which  needs  no  poetic  and  mythical 
horrors  to  enhance  its  destructiveness. 

No  less  than  eighty  great  eruptions  have  been 
recorded  during  the  last  two  thousand  years, 
some  of  them  of  frightful  violence.  As  far  back 
as  the  year  396  b.  c.  we  read  of  its  belching  forth 
flames  and  lava,  and  of  the  destruction  which 
overwhelmed  thousands  of  Sicilians.  In  11 69 
a.  d.  the  people  of  Catania,  which  lies  at  the  very 
foot  of  ^tna,  and  which  has  always  suffered 
most  from  its  eruptions,  were  celebrating  the 
Feast  of  St.  Agatha  in  the  great  cathedral.  The 
enormous  church  was  filled  with  people,  some 
thousands  in  all,  every  one  of  whom,  it  is  said, 
including  the  bishop  and  forty-four  Benedictine 
monks,  perished,  while  in  the  city  of  Catania, 
some  15,000  in  all  were  overwhelmed  by  the  fiery 
flood.  Mr.  Will  S.  Monroe,  in  his  interesting 
and  valuable  volume,  "Sicily,  the  Garden  of  the 
Mediterranean,"  gives  this  graphic  account  of 
the  eruption  of  1669,  based  upon  the  story  of  Al- 
fonso Borelli,  who  was  at  the  time  one  of  the 
professors  in  the  University  at  Catania.  This 
account  may  well  stand  as  typical  of  many  an- 
other awful  scene  of  destruction  for  which  yEtna 
has  been  responsible. 

On  the  morning  of  the  eighth  of  March  the  sun 
was  suddenly  obscured  and  serious  earthquakes, 


146     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

which  continued  for  three  days,  were  felt.  A  fis- 
sure twelve  miles  long,  six  feet  wide,  and  very 
deep,  opened  on  the  side  of  the  mountain  and 
from  this  issued  a  bright  light. 

Six  mouths  opened  on  the  line  of  the  fissure, 
which  emitted  vast  volumes  of  smoke  accompa- 
nied by  noises  which  could  be  heard  forty  miles 
away.  Soon  a  new  crater,  a  mile  below  the  oth- 
ers, opened,  and  from  this  red-hot  stones,  sand, 
and  ashes  were  thrown  into  the  air  and  covered 
the  country  for  a  distance  of  sixty  miles.  A  tor- 
rent of  lava  with  a  front  of  two  miles  issued  from 
the  new  crater.  It  flowed  toward  Catania  and 
destroyed  fourteen  towns,  and  many  thousands 
of  people  in  its  progress. 

Just  before  reaching  Catania  the  lava  stream 
undermined  a  hill  covered  with  wheat  fields 
which  it  carried  forward  a  considerable  distance. 
The  walls  of  Catania  were  sixty  feet  high,  but  it 
soon  rose  to  the  top  and  fell  into  the  city  in  a 
fiery  cascade.  When  it  finally  reached  the  sea, 
it  caused  the  waters  to  boil  violently  and  great 
clouds  of  steam  arose  carrying  up  quantities  of 
scoriae.  It  filled  up  the  port,  and  destroyed  most 
of  the  city. 

In  the  city  of  Messina,  which  is  the  first  Si- 
cilian town  that  the  tourist  sights  when  passing 
through  the  Straits,  he  sees  melancholy  evidence 
of  the  awful  powers  of  nature  in  her  destructive 
moods,  for  here  is  the  city  which,  on  December 


WORLD'S  WINTER  PLAYGROUND      147 

28,  1908,  suffered  the  greatest  disaster  of  mod- 
ern times.  It  is  indeed  still  a  sad  sight,  with  its 
deserted  streets,  its  piles  of  crumbling  ruins,  its 
hollow,  silent  houses,  imposing  often  in  their  out- 
ward appearance,  with  carved  stone  cornices  and 
balustrades,  but  hollow  and  empty  within,  since, 
in  that  awful  disaster,  the  floors  and  roofs  often 
fell  in  while  the  outer  walls  remained  intact. 
Comparatively  little  has  yet  been  done  to  rebuild 
the  city.  The  American  Campo,  as  it  is  called,  is 
a  quarter  covered  with  small  wooden  houses  sent 
from  America  ready  made,  when  the  hearts  of 
our  people  were  touched  by  the  awful  woes  of 
Messina.  These  houses  are  little  more  than 
huts,  such  as  would  shelter  our  cows  or  hens  at 
home,  but  they  were  a  wonderful  boon  to  the 
people  of  Messina  at  the  time,  and  they  seem 
loath  to  leave  them  for  more  substantial  dwell- 
ings. 

But  Sicily  is  not  altogether  a  land  of  volcanoes 
and  earthquakes.  It  has  charming  little  valleys, 
and  great  stretches  of  fertile  soil,  where  the  vine 
and  the  olive  flourish,  and  where  citrus  fruits  of 
all  kinds  attain  their  full  perfection.  Here,  too, 
are  numberless  ravishing  glimpses  of  the  sea  and 
shore.  Here  we  find  a  climate  which  might  make 
even  southern  California  envious,  and  here  are 
temples  and  palaces  of  the  olden  days,  which 


148     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

show  by  their  ruins  what  mighty  people  have  in- 
habited Sicily. 

To  indicate  how  desirable  Sicily  has  been  con- 
sidered by  the  nations  of  antiquity,  it  is  only  nec- 
essary to  state  that  no  less  than  fifteen  different 
nations  have  fought  for  the  possession  of  the 
land,  and  have  occupied  her  soil  for  a  longer  or 
shorter  period  during  these  last  three  thousand 
years.  While  this  enumeration,  as  Mr.  Monroe 
remarks,  does  not  include  the  earliest  inhabitants, 
the  Sikans  and  Sikels,  and  the  Elymians.  These 
fifteen  great  nations  in  the  order  of  their  occu- 
pation, before  Italy,  fifty  years  ago,  established 
its  dominion  over  Sicily,  are  the  following:  Ve- 
netians, Greeks,  Carthaginians,  Romans,  Byzan- 
tines, Goths,  Vandals,  Saracens,  Normans,  Ger- 
mans, Anjouans,  Arragonese,  Spanish  Bourbons, 
French,  and  English,  and  each  it  has  been  truly 
said  "has  left  its  trace  on  the  Island."  What 
country  has  had  a  more  varied  history!  What 
nation  has  had  so  many  masters !  In  what  peo- 
ple are  there  so  many  strains  of  heroic  blood 
mixed?  What  these  people  are  to-day,  how  they 
live,  their  faults  and  their  virtues,  and  what  we 
may  expect  them  to  contribute  to  America,  I  shall 
try  to  tell  in  another  chapter. 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE   SICILIAN   AT   HOME 

For  more  than  five  years  emigration  from  Italy 
has  been  almost  entirely  suspended,  but  in  the 
year  191 2  almost  100,000  people  from  the  com- 
paratively small  island  of  Sicily  distributed  them- 
selves over  the  face  of  the  earth,  seeking  new 
homes  in  Europe,  Asia,  Africa  and  America. 
No  less  than  thirty-seven  different  countries  re- 
ceived a  contribution  of  her  stalwart  laborers  in 
that  one  year.  More  than  15,000  sought  Argen- 
tina; something  over  three  thousand  looked  for 
a  home  in  Brazil;  Tripoli,  the  new  province  of 
Italy,  lured  about  one  thousand  to  her  shores; 
Canada  received  about  the  same  number,  while 
more  than  two-thirds  of  all,  to  be  exact,  64,243, 
sought  the  Stati  Uniti,  as  they  designate  our 
country.  In  191 3  still  more  Sicilian  emigrants 
landed  in  America. 

These  figures  are  more  impressive  when  stated 
in  other  terms  or  when  we  remember  that  Sicily, 
in  a  single  twelve  months,  sent  out  from  her 
shores  as  many  people  as  would  make  up  the  full 

149 


150     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

qtiota  of  the  population  of  Charleston,  S.  C,  or 
the  thriving  manufacturing  towns  of  Brockton, 
Mass.,  or  Fort  Wayne,  Ind.,  or  the  capitals  of 
Nebraska  or  Pennsylvania. 

This  only  in  a  single  year,  while  a  constantly 
larger  stream  in  the  future  will  doubtless  flow  to 
us  from  this  one  island  of  the  Mediterranean. 
It  is  well  worth  while  for  us,  then,  to  consider 
who  these  people  are,  who  every  year  have  been 
coming  to  us  in  numbers  large  enough  to  consti- 
tute a  thriving  city  of  the  second  class. 

When  a  Sicilian  is  mentioned,  doubtless  many 
an  American  conjures  up  a  picture  of  a  ragged, 
dirty,  low-browed  assassin,  with  his  ever  ready 
stiletto  and  pistol,  and  he  mutters  the  frightful 
words  "Mafia"  and  "Camorra"  without  having 
any  well-defined  idea  what  they  mean.  Of  all 
the  immigrants  to  our  shores,  doubtless  the  Sicil- 
ian has  the  worst  reputation,  but  let  us  ask  our- 
selves if  he  deserves  it. 

It  is  easy  enough  to  make  out  a  very  bad  case 
for  the  Sicilian.  In  no  part  of  Italy  is  there  so 
much  poverty,  and  ignorance,  and  so  many  crimes 
of  violence.  Alexander  Dumas  once  described 
the  poverty  of  Sicily  in  his  own  unapproachably 
graphic  manner : 

Here  poverty  is  seen  in  all  its  hideousness, 
with  fleshless,  feeble  limbs  and  cavernous,  fever- 


THE  SICILIAN  AT  HOME  151 

ish  eyes.  It  is  hunger  with  its  cries  of  suffering, 
with  its  eternal  death-rattle — hunger  that  triples 
the  years  on  the  faces  of  young  girls ;  hunger  that 
makes  the  young  Sicilian  maiden,  at  an  age  when 
in  all  other  lands  women  are  beautiful  with  youth, 
seem  falling  into  decrepitude ;  hunger  more  cruel, 
more  implacable,  more  deadly  than  debauchery 
that  blasts  and  withers,  without  affording,  like 
debauchery,  the  gross  and  sensual  comforts  of  its 
rival  in  destruction. 

This  is  probably  the  worst  that  can  be  said  of 
Sicilian  life  by  a  master  of  words,  and  it  was 
doubtless  written  at  the  time  of  the  Bourbon 
domination,  when  Sicily  had  sunk  to  its  lowest 
estate.  I  can  testify  from  personal  observation 
in  many  parts  of  Sicily  that  the  condition  of  af- 
fairs is  by  no  means  so  bad  under  the  enlightened 
and  progressive  Italian  rule,  though,  of  course, 
there  is  still  much  left  to  be  desired,  and  it  can 
hardly  be  expected  that  a  nation  will  be  born  in  a 
day.  To  cleanse,  to  purify,  to  educate,  to  en- 
lighten a  people  who  have  been  so  long  ground 
down  in  the  dust  by  the  heel  of  the  oppressor  is  a 
matter  of  decades  and  centuries,  rather  than  of 
years.  There  is,  of  course,  plenty  of  poverty  and 
distress  still  in  the  island,  but  it  is  not  the  hopeless 
destitution  of  earlier  years. 

The  Sicilians  are  not  without  their  ideals  and 
their   ambitions.     They,    too,    were   thrilled   by 


152     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

Garibaldi's  bugle  notes,  for  here  he  led  his  most 
successful  revolt.  They,  too,  were  inspired  by 
Mazzini's  eloquent  appeals  for  brotherhood  and 
liberty,  and  there  are  no  more  ardent  supporters 
of  the  new  regime  than  the  Sicilians. 

America,  also,  has  opened  a  new  door  of  hope 
to  Sicily,  as  we  have  already  seen,  and  every 
able-bodied  peasant  who  has  no  black  record  of 
crime  hanging  over  him,  knows  that,  if  he  cannot 
make  a  living  at  home,  there  is  a  broader  land 
beyond  the  Mediterranean  and  the  Atlantic, 
where  he  can  make  or  mend  his  fortune. 

A  sufficiently  dark,  but  more  accurate  descrip- 
tion of  the  Sicilian  home  of  to-day  is  the  follow- 
ing, by  a  recent  writer : 

The  dwellings  of  the  Sicilian  peasants  are  lit- 
tle more  than  hovels.  They  usually  have  only 
one  room,  often  windowless,  or  lighted  only  by 
the  door,  for  windows  are  a  luxury  in  Sicily; 
good  glass  is  very  expensive  and  cheap  glass 
cracks  in  the  hot  sun.  The  floor  is  of  worn 
stone,  the  walls  are  rudely  plastered  and  the  only 
heat  in  winter  comes  from  the  small  charcoal 
brazier  that  is  used  in  preparing  the  food.  An 
iron  bedstead,  a  shaky  table,  and  a  few  rude 
chairs  cover  the  furnishings.  The  walls  are 
decorated  with  political  caricatures  taken  from 
the  newspapers,  advertisements  of  steamship 
lines  to  the  United  States  and  South  America, 


THE  SICILIAN  AT  HOME  153 

and  a  wooden  crucifix  suspended  in  the  corner. 
Over  the  doorway  one  often  sees  a  rude  carving 
of  the  Mother  of  Christ  and  her  Child,  or  a  great 
cross  scrawled  in  the  whitewash.  But  the  Sicil- 
ian peasants  have  learned  the  art  of  living  out 
of  doors.     The  street  is  their  drawing  room.1 

Let  me  place  side  by  side  with  this  a  more 
pleasing  picture  of  Sicilian  family  life  as  Norma 
Lorimer,  who  has  written  "By  the  Waters  of 
Sicily,"  describes  the  purchase  of  the  wedding 
jewelry  by  a  Sicilian  family : 

I  have  more  than  once  seen  a  little  family  con- 
clave, lasting  the  greater  part  of  the  day,  taking 
place  in  some  quiet  jeweller's  shop.  A  table  is 
placed  in  the  middle  of  the  floor,  and  the  family 
— which  usually  consists  of  three  generations  at 
least — take  their  places  at  it  with  an  air  of  dig- 
nified importance.  The  mother  of  the  bride  is 
draped  in  the  usual  fine,  black  cashmere  shawl, 
but  the  glossy  head  of  her  pretty  daughter  is  of 
course  hatless ;  her  parents  can  afford  to  buy  her 
some  fine  gold  trinkets  for  her  dowry,  but  she  has 
not  risen  to  the  social  position  of  wearing  a  hat. 
A  bright  scarf  of  many  colors  will  be  worn  over 
her  hair  on  the  journey  home. 

The  jeweller  does  not  expect  the  party  to  hurry 
over  their  purchase;  what  has  taken  so  long  to 
save  must  not  be  spent  too  quickly.  The  whole 
shop  is  turned  out  for  them  to  examine,  although 

1  From  "Sicily,  the  Garden  of  the  Mediterranean." 


154     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

the  article  of  their  choice  has  been  decided  upon 
at  home  for  some  months  past.  Dear,  simple 
people,  no  one  is  left  out  upon  this  important  oc- 
casion. The  old  family  servant  is  there,  and  so 
are  one  or  two  good  neighbors.  I  can  imagine 
the  bare  little  Sicilian  home  made  bright  that 
night  by  the  presence  of  the  wonderful  necklace. 

If  the  Sicilians  are  poor,  and  many  of  them 
even  destitute,  we  must  remember  that  it  is  not 
chiefly  their  own  thriftlessness  that  has  made 
them  so,  certainly  not  intemperance,  which  brings 
so  many  Anglo-Saxons  to  the  gutter,  for  all 
agree  that  intemperance  is  not  a  crying  Sicilian 
vice,  but  it  is  the  hard  conditions  under  which 
they  have  lived,  their  crowded  soil,  their  high 
taxes,  their  inability  to  provide  modern  agricul- 
tural implements, — for  here,  as  in  so  many  other 
directions,  the  "destruction  of  the  poor  is  their 
poverty,"  as  Solomon  declares.  Moreover, 
America  must  take  her  share  of  blame  for  the 
poverty  of  Sicily,  though  we  have  unconsciously 
contributed  to  it,  for  one  by  one,  we  have  robbed 
her  of  a  portion  of  her  market  for  her  chief  ex- 
ports, by  producing  and  exporting  the  same 
things  ourselves. 

At  the  time  of  our  Civil  War  a  considerable 
quantity  of  an  excellent  quality  of  cotton  was 
raised  in  Sicily,  but  when  the  war  was  over  and 


THE  SICILIAN  AT  HOME  155 

our  broad  cotton  fields  began  to  expand  still  fur- 
ther, and  our  improved  processes  of  harvesting 
and  ginning  the  cotton  constantly  reduced  its 
price,  Sicily  could  no  longer  compete,  and  this 
source  of  revenue  was  lost.  Formerly,  America 
was  the  best  market  for  Sicilian  lemons  and  or- 
anges, but  California  and  Florida  came  to  the 
front  with  their  delicious  citrus  fruits,  and  Sicil- 
ian lemons  and  oranges  have  had  to  take  a  second 
place  in  our  markets.  Still,  the  lemon  trees  of 
Catania  and  Palermo  are  so  prolific,  each  produc- 
ing on  an  average  from  one  thousand  to  twelve 
hundred  lemons  in  a  year,  that  this  course  of 
revenue,  though  diminished,  is  by  no  means  lost, 
since  Continental  Europe  remains  a  good  cus- 
tomer, and,  moreover,  a  third  of  the  lemon  crop, 
since  the  loss  of  much  of  the  American  market, 
is  made  into  citrate  of  lime. 

Formerly,  sulphur,  which  is  the  chief  mineral 
found  in  the  island  of  marketable  value,  was  a 
great  source  of  revenue  to  Sicily.  Thirty  thou- 
sand men  were  employed  in  this  industry,  and  a 
dreadfully  unwholesome,  blighting  industry  it  is 
too.  They  manage  to  produce  some  400,000  tons 
of  sulphur  every  year.  Of  late  years  enormous 
deposits  of  sulphur  have  been  discovered  in  Lou- 
isiana, and  we  no  longer  need  to  send  to  Sicily 
for  that  evil  smelling  product  of  the  earth. 


156     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

This  may,  in  the  end,  be  a  good  thing  for  Sicily, 
if  it  turns  the  attention  of  her  people  to  more 
wholesome  and  healthful  occupations  than  sul- 
phur mining,  for  we  are  told  that  "the  sulphur 
miners  represent  the  lowest  type  of  the  Sicilian 
population.  They  are  often  recruited  from  the 
criminal  classes,  and  they  enormously  increase 
the  illiteracy,  crime,  and  vice  statistics  of  the 
Island." 

But  I  shall  be  asked,  What  of  the  Mafia  and 
the  Camorra,  of  which  we  hear  such  dreadful 
tales  ?  One  would  think,  from  the  way  in  which 
some  people  shudder  when  these  words  are 
spoken,  that  they  supposed  that  every  Sicilian  be- 
longed to  one  of  these  organizations,  and  went 
about  with  a  stiletto  in  his  sleeve,  ready  to  plunge 
it  into  the  heart  of  any  unoffending  neighbor. 
But,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Camorra  has  nothing 
to  do  with  Sicily.  It  is  an  evil  institution  of 
Naples  alone.  It  has  been  rightly  called  "a  vi- 
cious and  malodorous  conspiracy  of  the  dissolute 
and  criminal  poor,  who  live  by  blackmailing  their 
fellow  poor,  and  selling  their  electoral  services  to 
the  government  or  the  local  deputies.  It  has  its 
tariff  of  blackmail  on  boatmen,  porters,  prosti- 
tutes and  gamblers.  It  drives  a  lucrative  trade  in 
unspeakable  horrors,  and  such  is  the  traditional 
fascination  which  it  has  on  the  imagination  of  the 


THE  SICILIAN  AT  HOME  157 

citizens  that  its  sway  is  often  absolute,  and  the 
police  are  glad  to  call  in  its  authority  where  they 
are  powerless." 

If  the  Camorra  is  a  product  of  Naples,  the  Ma- 
fia seems  indigenous  to  Sicily.  Someone  has 
called  the  Mafia  "a.  degenerate  form  of  chivalry," 
and  it  is  not  unlike  the  Ku  Klux  Clan,  or  the  or- 
ganizations among  the  mountain  whites  of  the 
South,  that  mete  out  a  rude  and  imperfect  form 
of  justice  to  the  wrongdoer,  without  the  forms  of 
law.  Of  course  this  very  soon  degenerates  into 
the  vendetti  and  the  son  or  grandson,  down  to  the 
third  and  fourth  generation,  must  avenge  the 
insult  or  injury  of  the  past,  so  that  after  a  while 
the  clan  or  the  family  makes  it  its  chief  business 
to  rob  or  exterminate  some  other  family  that  it 
believes  has  wronged  it.  The  word  Mafia  means 
an  organization  made  up  of  many  small  gangs 
called  Cosche.  The  Cosche  is  an  artichoke,  and 
any  one  who  has  eaten  an  artichoke  knows  how 
closely  the  succulent  leaves  hug  the  center,  and 
require  considerable  force  to  pull  them  away. 
Thus  the  members  of  the  Mafia  hold  together  as 
closely  as  the  leaves  of  an  artichoke. 

We  are  assured  that  the  Mafia  "usually  lives 
by  blackmailing  on  the  suavest  and  most  courte- 
ous lines,  and  it  only  resorts  to  theft  and  murder 
when  need  requires  to  terrorize  the  rare  refuser 


158     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

of  tribute  or  to  punish  treachery  in  its  own 
ranks."  The  worst  feature  of  the  Mafia,  like 
the  Camorra,  is  its  evil  political  influence.  It  is 
so  strong  in  some  places  that  it  is  said  that  no 
deputy  can  be  elected  to  parliament  unless  he 
promises  it  protection,  and  that  its  patrons  in  the 
senate  and  the  popular  chamber  of  the  Italian 
government  are  the  worst  foes  to  the  honor  and 
integrity  of  the  country. 

But  while  we  remember  this,  we  must  also  not 
forget  that  the  American  cannot  throw  many 
stones  at  the  Mafia  while  he  remembers  the  influ- 
ence the  political  thugs  of  New  York  and  Phila- 
delphia have  at  times  exerted  at  Albany,  Harris- 
burg,  and  Washington,  and  while  he  remembers 
the  lynchings,  and  the  feuds  that  have  been  set- 
tled by  the  shot  gun  and  the  pistol  in  the  ruder 
portions  of  our  own  country. 

It  is  reassuring  to  remember  that  the  average 
emigrant  is  not  drawn  from  the  Mafia  or  the 
Camorra  caste.  Very  few  emigrants,  good,  bad 
or  indifferent,  go  from  Naples  to  America, 
though  many  sail  from  Naples,  while  the  Mafia 
of  Sicily  is  made  up  largely  of  small  landed  pro- 
prietors and  petty  tradesmen,  a  class  which  stays 
at  home,  while  the  poorer,  but  more  honest,  day 
laborer,  who  has  nothing  to  gain  or  lose  from 
the  Mafia,  seeks  new  homes  in  another  continent. 


THE  SICILIAN  AT  HOME  159 

From  Sicily,  then,  as  from  the  rest  of  Italy,  I 
believe  we  have  very  little  to  fear  from  the  immi- 
grant. He  is,  to  be  sure,  poor,  ignorant  and 
often  bigoted,  and  extremely  narrow  in  his  views, 
but  he  is  enterprising,  vigorous,  brawny  and 
teachable,  and,  if  we  can  but  bring  the  influences 
of  the  common  school  and  an  enlightened  church 
to  bear  upon  him  in  his  new  home,  he  will  not 
make,  by  any  means,  the  worst  American  citizen. 
Our  ingenuity  and  efforts  should  not  be  centered 
upon  plans  for  keeping  him  out,  but  upon  plans 
for  making  him  a  worthy  citizen,  since  in  most  of 
the  Sicilian  immigrants  there  is  good  American 
timber  in  the  rough. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

EDUCATION   AND   RELIGION 

In  some  respects  Italy  takes  front  rank  in  the 
family  of  the  nations  in  the  matter  of  education. 
She  has  several  famous  universities,  some  of 
which,  at  least,  are  still  worthy  of  their  ancient 
repute.  She  has  many  good  technical  schools 
and  art  is  taught  as  perhaps  in  no  other  land  save 
France.  But  the  weak  point  in  Italian  education 
is  the  elementary  school,  the  school  which  more 
directly  affects  the  people  with  whom  we  have  to 
do  in  this  volume.  Few  emigrants  have  a  uni- 
versity education,  and  not  many  have  taken  a 
course  in  science  or  art,  so  that  except  indirectly, 
in  furnishing  a  sort  of  national  ideal,  which  un- 
doubtedly to  an  extent  affects  the  common  peo- 
ple, the  emigrant  is  not  greatly  indebted  to  the 
higher  schools. 

In  what  we  should  call  the  primary  and  gram- 
mar grades,  Italy  has  been  in  the  past  woefully 
deficient,  but  it  is  hopeful  to  know  that  she  recog- 
nizes her  defects,  and  is  seeking  every  year  to 
remedy  them.  Yet  it  is  still  true  that  while 
money  is  poured  out  lavishly  for  the  army  and 

160 


EDUCATION  AND  RELIGION  161 

navy,  it  is  doled  out  to  the  public  schools  with  a 
grudging  hand.  The  education  department  has 
been  called  "the  Cinderella  of  Italian  Adminis- 
tration," yet  constant  progress  is  being  made  in 
primary  education.  In  the  last  two  decades  of 
the  last  century  the  percentage  of  illiteracy  fell 
from  sixty-seven  per  cent  to  fifty-six,  and  if  it 
were  not  for  the  handicap  of  the  backward  south, 
especially  Calabria  and  Sicily,  the  percentage  of 
gain  would  be  much  higher,  for  in  the  northern 
and  progressive  province  of  Piedmont  only 
twelve  or  fourteen  per  cent  of  the  people  can 
neither  read  nor  write,  and  it  is  safe  to  say  that 
every  child  in  the  north  can  receive,  and  most  of 
them  do  receive,  elementary  teaching. 

Education,  according  to  the  statute  books,  has 
been  compulsory  for  more  than  fifty  years,  but 
in  many  provinces  in  name  only,  since  neither 
schools  nor  teachers  enough  have  been  provided 
to  teach  all  the  children  even  their  A,  B,  C's. 
The  following  is  a  picture  drawn  by  a  careful 
English  writer,  of  the  schools  of  Italy  a  few 
years  ago: 

At  least  one-fifth  of  the  school  buildings  are 
bad, — close,  insanitary,  over-crowded,  frequently 
unprovided  with  closets,  occasionally  placed  in 
stables  that  have  been  adapted  to  the  purpose. 
In  whole  districts  sometimes  hardly  a  school  can 


i62     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

boast  a  building  specially  constructed  for  it — 
dwelling-houses,  suppressed  convents,  if  not 
worse,  supply  the  sole  accommodation.  .  .  . 
Italian  schools  are  liberally  staffed  as  compared 
with  those  of  most  other  countries;  but  in  more 
than  half  the  schools  a  single  teacher  has  to  take 
three  classes,  either  of  boys  or  girls.  In  10,000 
schools  a  master,  or  more  frequently  a  mistress, 
has  to  teach  three  classes  of  both  sexes.  As  a 
consequence,  the  teaching  in  the  great  majority  of 
smaller  schools  is  worse  even  than  that  of  a  bad 
village  school  in  England. 

The  great  majority  of  the  teachers  are  high- 
minded  men  and  women,  who,  poor,  over-worked, 
ill-treated  by  the  authorities,  often  barely  tol- 
erated by  their  neighbors,  make  a  noble  effort  to 
inform  and  moralize  their  truant  scholars.  But 
their  capabilities  often  fall  short  of  their  high 
purpose,  and  some  have  small  stuff  or  training 
for  their  work.  ...  If  one  may  judge  from  the 
inspectors'  reports,  arithmetic  (thanks  largely,  no 
doubt,  to  the  use  of  decimals)  is  the  only  subject 
taught  at  all  well  in  the  average  school.  A  great 
deal  of  time  is  necessarily  occupied  in  teaching 
good  Italian  to  children,  who  only  speak  their 
own  dialect,  and  to  whom  the  literary  tongue  is 
almost  a  foreign  language.  The  quality  of  the 
writing  may  be  judged  from  the  fact  that  "cal- 
ligraphy" is  a  separate  subject  only  taught  in  the 
upper  standards.  After  the  elementary  subjects, 
and  a  smattering  of  natural  science  taught  inci- 
dentally with  them,  the  acquirements  of  the  rural 


EDUCATION  AND  RELIGION  163 

scholar  stop  short.  In  the  towns  where  the  up- 
per standards  are  taught,  the  pupil  learns  some 
geography  and  history,  and  a  little  elementary 
science  and  geometry.  Drawing  is  taught  by  one 
teacher  in  five,  but  seldom  to  much  purpose. 
There  are  rarely  sufficient  specimens  or  appara- 
tus for  effective  object  lessons.  Singing  is  taught 
in  many  schools,  as  a  rule  poorly,  but  sometimes 
well.  ...  A  certain  number  of  teachers  take  the 
children  for  excursions,  and  collect  objects  for 
the  school  museum.  Gymnastics  are  an  obliga- 
tory subject,  but  they  are  much  neglected,  largely 
from  the  want  of  playgrounds.  The  examina- 
tions are  generally  conducted  by  incompetent  lo- 
cal persons,  and  on  no  common  principle. 

I  have  quoted  this  extended  extract  because  it 
gives  a  careful,  though  perhaps  not  altogether 
unprejudiced  account  of  the  Italian  school,  and 
because  written  by  authors  who  have  made  a  long 
and  careful  study  of  their  subject.  If  the  picture 
is  dark,  it  is  relieved  by  the  fact  that  the  schools 
are  on  the  up  grade.  When  we  remember  what 
Italy  has  had  to  accomplish  within  the  last  fifty 
years  in  establishing  representative  government, 
in  suppressing  brigandage,  in  establishing  and 
maintaining  and  supporting  an  enormous  army 
and  navy  to  support  her  claims  as  a  first  class 
power,  we  may  well  wonder  that  education  has 
progressed  as  it  has. 


1 64     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

Since  the  emigrants  to  America  come  largely 
from  the  south  of  Italy  where  the  schools  are 
fewest  and  poorest,  only  about  sixty  per  cent  of 
them  could  be  admitted  under  the  new  law.  But 
this  percentage  is  constantly  being  increased,  and 
at  the  present  rate  it  will  not  be  many  decades 
before  the  Italian  emigrant,  in  the  matter  of  his 
A,  B,  C's  at  least,  can  take  his  place  beside  his 
Bohemian  brother,  and  his  companions  in  the 
steerage  from  the  north  of  Europe. 

In  the  matter  of  education,  the  schools  of  Italy, 
like  our  own,  are  entirely  secular  in  theory. 
Morals  are  taught,  and  morals  of  a  high  grade 
at  that,  but  religious  dogma  is  barred  in  the 
schoolhouses,  and  within  school  hours.  The 
commissioner  of  education  carefully  guards  the 
textbooks  from  dogmatic  bias,  though  in  some  of 
the  reading  books  well  selected  extracts  from  the 
Bible  are  given,  because  of  their  pure  literary 
style  and  exalted  morality.  Any  one  is  at  liberty 
to  write  a  textbook  and  send  it  to  the  Board  of 
Education,  and,  if  it  passes  muster,  it  is  intro- 
duced into  the  schools  to  a  greater  or  less  extent. 
The  higher  authorities  are  evidently  awake  to 
the  importance  of  their  task,  and  are  doing  every- 
thing possible,  with  the  means  at  their  disposal, 
to  improve  the  educational  status  of  the  common 
people. 


EDUCATION  AND  RELIGION  165 

The  religious  status  of  Italy  is  a  difficult  sub- 
ject to  treat  from  an  unprejudiced  standpoint. 
In  another  book  x  I  have  paid  grateful  tribute  to 
the  work  of  the  American  missionaries,  especially 
to  the  extensive  educational  and  religious  propa- 
ganda carried  on  by  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  of  America,  and  the  English  Wesleyans 
and  Baptists. 

I  have  already  told  briefly  the  glorious  history 
of  the  Waldensian  Martyr  Church  of  Italy,  the 
only  indigenous  Protestant  faith,  which  is  doubt- 
less the  hope  of  the  Italy  of  the  future  so  far  as 
Protestantism  is  concerned. 

As  to  the  condition  of  the  Catholic  Church  I 
find  that  opinions  differ  widely.  One  man  will 
tell  you  that  it  is  decadent  to  the  last  degree  and 
almost  moribund;  another  that  since  the  aboli- 
tion of  the  temporal  power  of  the  Pope,  the 
church  has  gained  in  enterprise,  vigor  and  spirit- 
uality; still  another  will  tell  you  that  Modernism 
and  the  scientific  spirit  are  sapping  the  power  of 
the  priesthood,  while  still  another  will  say  that 
the  influence  of  Modernism  has  been  greatly 
checked  of  late  and  that  it  is  no  longer  a  serious 
menace  to  the  spiritual  claims  of  the  Church. 

There  is  no  doubt  that,  with  the  advent  of  Pius 
X  and  the  present  Pope,  the  Vatican  has  ap- 

1  "The  Gospe}  in  Latin  Lands." 


166     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

proached  much  nearer  to  the  Quirinal.  Though 
the  Pope  still  keeps  up  the  fiction  of  being  the 
"Prisoner  of  the  Vatican,"  the  ecclesiastical  au- 
thorities practically  recognize  that  Rome  is  and 
will  continue  to  be,  the  capital  of  United  Italy, 
and  Catholics  are  no  longer  forbidden,  as  they 
once  were,  to  take  any  part  in  the  politics  of  the 
nation,  though  Pius  X  wisely  disapproved  of  the 
formation  of  a  Catholic  political  party. 

As  to  the  religious  tendencies  of  the  common 
people,  I  find  that  here,  too,  opinions  differ 
greatly.  The  extreme  Protestant,  who,  I  regret 
to  say,  will  tell  you  that  no  religion  at  all,  even 
infidelity  and  atheism,  are  better  than  the  teach- 
ings of  the  Catholic  Church,  will  also  tell  you  that 
the  Church  has  lost  its  hold;  that  three-fourths 
of  the  people  never  go  to  church  at  all,  and  that 
the  few  that  do  go  are  old  women  or  little  chil- 
dren. 

I  have  purposely  gone  into  many  Catholic 
churches  in  many  parts  of  Italy  for  the  purpose 
of  seeing  with  my  own  eyes  if  devotion  to  the 
church  is  as  extinct  as  we  are  sometimes  told. 
I  have  never  been  into  any  Catholic  church,  large 
or  small,  morning,  afternoon  or  evening,  without 
seeing  some  worshippers,  apparently  earnest  and 
devout,  and  during  the  services  the  churches  are 
often  crowded,  while  the  proportion  of  men  seems 


EDUCATION  AND  RELIGION  167 

quite  as  large  as  in  the  average  Protestant 
Church.  Staunch  Protestant  as  I  am,  I  do  not 
believe  that  anything  is  gained  by  a  distortion  of 
facts,  or  by  the  unlimited  Billingsgate  which  is 
sometimes  heaped  upon  the  Church  of  Rome.  It 
is  like  borrowing  the  weapons  of  some  of  the 
Romanists  themselves,  which  have  proved  so  in- 
effectual in  their  attacks  upon  Protestantism. 

Since  the  advent  of  the  present  century,  the 
Catholic  church  has  gained  in  Italy,  so  far  as 
outward  prosperity  is  concerned,  for  there  are 
hundreds  more  monks,  and  some  thousands  more 
nuns  than  at  the  beginning  of  the  century,  and, 
though  many  convents  and  monasteries  have  been 
suppressed,  their  total  number  has  increased  by 
more  than  eight  hundred  since  the  year  1900. 

But  all  these  figures,  and  these  conflicting  opin- 
ions, tell  us  little  of  the  real  spiritual  state  of  the 
church.  It  is  undoubtedly  true  that  supersti- 
tion, bigotry  and  ignorance  have  flourished  in 
Italy  in  the  past  under  her  aegis.  It  cannot  be 
denied  that  she  has  kept  the  Bible  from  the  com- 
mon people  and  has  often  encouraged  their  belief 
in  myths  and  false  miracles.  Nevertheless,  we 
may  well  be  grateful  for  the  moral  restraints 
which  the  Church  of  Rome  throws  around  its  vo- 
taries and  for  the  undoubted  spiritual  life  which 
is  nourished  in  many  hearts. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

WILL   THEY    MAKE   GOOD   AMERICANS? 

The  title  of  this  chapter  is  the  most  important 
question  which  we  can  ask  concerning  these  new 
Americans.  More  important  than  to  know  the 
country  from  which  they  come,  the  history  and 
characteristics  of  their  fatherland,  its  resources 
and  its  needs,  is  it  to  know  about  the  people  them- 
selves, and  whether  they  have  the  innate  qualities 
which,  under  new  skies  and  on  a  broader  field, 
will  develop  them  into  worthy  and  useful  citizens. 

What  are  the  characteristics,  which,  if  we 
could  have  our  wish,  we  should  demand  of  the 
immigrant?  Are  they  not  these?  Industry, 
thrift,  temperance,  and  the  capacity  for  patriot- 
ism. The  list  of  good  qualities  might  doubtless 
be  lengthened,  but  we  think  these  will  embrace 
the  more  conspicuous  traits  which  a  reasonable 
man  would  demand.  In  good  measure  I  think  we 
shall  find  that  the  Italian  immigrant  fills  the  bill. 

Let  my  readers  consider  for  a  moment  what 

it  means  to  emigrate  to  a  new  country,  knowing 

168 


GOOD  AMERICANS  169 

nothing  of  its  language,  its  customs  and  its  laws. 
Even  an  educated  traveller,  armed  with  his 
phrase  book  and  his  indispensable  Baedeker,  does 
not  feel  altogether  at  his  ease,  when  he  steps 
ashore  on  new  soil,  and  the  majority  of  travellers 
who  can  afford  it,  avail  themselves  of  the  kindly 
offices  of  Cook  or  some  other  tourist  agency,  or 
hire  a  courier  to  see  them  safely  through. 

But  consider  what  it  must  mean  for  the  unedu- 
cated peasant,  who  perhaps  can  barely  read  and 
write  his  own  language,  to  face  the  strange,  al- 
ways busy,  and  often  harsh,  officials  who  meet 
him  at  the  landing  stage.  He  does  not  under- 
stand their  sharp  orders.  Everything  is  new  and 
strange  and  often  terrifying  to  him.  He  has 
lived,  perhaps,  in  a  little  country  village,  know- 
ing only  a  score  of  neighbors,  and  finds  himself, 
after  a  dozen  days  in  the  steerage,  dumped  down 
into  the  midst  of  a  great  city,  noisy  and  bustling, 
full  of  perils  to  his  unaccustomed  senses,  and 
utterly  indifferent  to  him,  a  poor,  lonesome  hu- 
man unit  among  millions  of  his  kind,  who  never 
give  him  a  thought  or  a  second  glance.  To  face 
such  an  experience  must  require  pluck  and  enter- 
prise, and,  as  a  rule,  we  shall  find  only  the  plucky 
and  the  enterprising  in  the  out-going  steerage. 

On  this  account,  as  we  have  watched  the  long, 
interminable  line  of  new  Americans,  waiting  for 


170     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

their  medical  certificates  in  the  great  emigration 
shed  at  Naples,  or  at  Genoa,  we  have  seen  that 
they  are  for  the  most  part  young  men,  strong, 
vigorous,  unintellectual  perhaps,  but  with  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  courage  and  enterprise  showing 
itself  in  their  faces,  enough  to  lead  them  to  face 
the  perils  of  the  deep,  and  the  greater  perils  of  the 
new  land. 

It  is  true  that  here  and  there  one  might  have 
seen  an  old  father  or  mother,  and  not  infrequently 
a  whole  family,  wife  and  children,  brothers  and 
sisters,  but  the  staff  and  stay  of  these  families, 
you  may  be  very  confident,  are  not  weaklings  in 
will  or  character,  however  illiterate  and  uncul- 
tured they  may  be. 

But  have  they  not  only  the  courage  to  face  new 
conditions,  but  stamina  enough  to  work  out  their 
destiny  by  plodding,  patient  toil  when  they  reach 
America?  The  passing  traveller  who  sees  the 
lazsaroni  of  Naples,  basking  in  the  sun  on  the 
cathedral  steps,  and  stretching  out  impotent 
hands  for  alms,  with  scarcely  enough  vitality  to 
care  whether  any  one  gives  them  a  soldo  or  not, 
carries  home  a  false  impression  of  rural  Italian 
character.  The  immigrants  do  not  come  to  us 
from  the  slums  of  Naples,  or  from  any  other 
great  city.  Scarcely  one  in  a  hundred  of  them 
is  city  born  and  bred,  and  these  few  are  for  the 


GOOD  AMERICANS  171 

most  part  skilled  artisans,  stone-cutters,  or  sculp- 
tors, or  barbers  or  waiters,  for  a  waiter  who  can 
divine  the  needs  of  his  guests  and  supply  them 
promptly  and  deftly,  may  be  considered  not  only 
a  skilled  artisan,  but  almost  an  artist. 

Such  emigrants  are  comparatively  few  and  far 
between.  The  vast  majority  come  directly  from 
the  soil,  as  I  have  been  assured  over  and  over 
again  by  inspectors  and  commissioners  who  know 
them  thoroughly.  They  are  the  small  farmers, 
very  small  oftentimes ;  more  likely  the  day  labor- 
ers who  have  not  an  inch  of  land  that  they  can 
call  their  own.  But  though  they  smell  of  the  soil, 
and  sometimes  show  traces  of  it,  they  have  the 
virtues  of  the  soil  as  well;  homely,  plodding,  pa- 
tient industry.  The  steam  plough  has  not  yet 
made  its  appearance  in  Italy.  The  reaper, 
binder,  and  thresher  with  motor  attachment  have 
not  yet  reduced  the  use  of  a  man's  muscles  to  a 
minimum,  and  substituted  steam  and  electricity 
for  "elbow-grease."  Whatever  else  these  emi- 
grants have  or  have  not  learned,  they  have 
learned  to  work,  and  as  one  watches  the  man 
with  the  hoe,  or  the  man  with  the  spade  in 
the  fields  of  Italy,  or  the  man  with  the  pruning 
hooks  in  her  vineyards,  he  sees  that  there  are  no 
lazy  bones  in  their  bodies,  or,  if  there  are,  these 
members  receive  very  little  consideration. 


172     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

M.  Bazin,  like  many  other  travellers,  confirms 
this  view  when  he  writes : 

This  world  of  poverty  is  also  a  hard-working 
world.  I  know  of  nothing  more  erroneous  than 
that  popular  prejudice  which  represents  the  Ital- 
ians as  a  nation  of  lazzaroni,  picturesque  in  their 
rags,  always  basking  in  the  sun,  always  stretch- 
ing out  a  hand  for  charity  when  the  stranger 
passes  by. 

Look  at  those  men  digging  trenches  in  the  rice 
fields,  or  at  those  preparing  the  ground  for  the 
winter  wheat,  or  at  those — and  the  women,  too — 
who  are  stringing  up  along  the  sides  of  the  farm 
buildings  the  russet  ears  of  corn,  the  sheaves  of 
the  gran  turco,  of  which  polenta  is  made.  Are 
they  idle  over  their  work?  Is  there  any  air  of 
opera  peasants  about  them  ?  I  have  been  among 
Italian  laborers  in  the  great  estates  at  the  foot  of 
the  Apennines;  I  have  seen  them  on  the  Roman 
Campagna,  and  the  country  around  Naples,  at 
Reggio  in  Calabria.  In  Sicily  the  French  super- 
intendent of  the  Due  d'Aumale's  vineyards  as- 
sured me  that  they  were  more  industrious,  that 
they  had  more  endurance  and  more  patience  than 
any  French  laborers  he  had  ever  known.  Others 
have  said  to  me,  speaking  of  Romagna,  that  I 
shall  see  there  "the  greatest  diggers  of  the 
ground"  that  there  are  in  the  world.  Every- 
where, and  at  all  times,  the  same  testimony  comes 
to  me  in  respect  to  this  strong,  unhappy  race  of 
men. 


GOOD  AMERICANS  173 

But  we  do  not  need  to  go  to  Italy  to  mark  the 
industry  of  the  inhabitants.  The  Italian  peasant 
is  the  navvy  of  the  world.  He  has  ousted  the 
Irishman  from  his  former  place  as  digger  and 
ditcher,  or  rather  the  Irish-American  has  risen 
in  the  scale  and  left  his  old  job  to  the  Italian, 
which  indeed  he  shares  to  a  greater  or  less  extent 
with  the  Hungarians  and  the  Slavs  from  central 
Europe.  Who  would  build  our  embankments, 
and  lay  our  rails,  and  dig  our  tunnels,  and  scoop 
out  our  subways,  if  Italy  did  not  send  us  the  men 
to  do  it?  It  is  hardly  too  much  to  say  that  the 
industrial  development  of  America  would  be  put 
back  a  quarter  of  a  century  had  Italy  not  opened 
her  doors  to  let  them  out,  and  had  we  not  opened 
ours  to  let  them  in. 

Almost  any  railway  journey  in  America  will 
show  us  these  sons  of  sunny  Italy,  brawny  if  not 
big,  industriously  wielding  pick  and  shovel,  crow- 
bar or  drill,  in  order  that  America  may  develop 
her  resources  and  fulfill  her  destiny. 

But  thrift  usually  goes  with  industry,  as  it 
certainly  does,  as  a  rule,  with  the  Italian  emi- 
grant. How  could  a  man  live  and  support  a 
large  family  on  two  hundred  dollars  a  year,  if  he 
were  not  thrifty?  The  very  hardness  of  his  lot, 
and  the  difficulty  of  subsistence,  have,  perforce, 
made  him  economical,  and  economy  and  thrift 


174     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

are  usually  synonymous.  The  housewife  will 
make  a  cabbage  and  a  knuckle  bone  go  farther 
than  most  native  Americans  would  make  a 
loin  of  beef  and  half  a  dozen  expensive  vegeta- 
bles. 

A  walk  through  an  Italian  fish  market,  or  a 
glance  at  a  bill  of  fare  in  a  trattoria,  will  convince 
the  spectator  of  the  truth  of  my  contention. 

In  the  fish  market  one  will  see  not  only  turbot 
and  sole  and  all  the  delicacies  of  the  ocean,  but 
devil  fish  and  squid,  cuttle  fish  and  octopus, 
sharks  and  porpoises,  displayed  for  sale.  Noth- 
ing is  too  coarse  or  repulsive  for  the  Italian  peas- 
ant to  eat,  if  it  is  not  absolutely  poison.  On  the 
bill  of  fare  of  the  restaurant  one  will  find  Fritto 
mista  and  if  he  orders  it  he  will  be  surprised  to 
find  that  squid  and  octopus,  though  tough  and 
leathery,  are  not  such  hideous  things  to  eat  as 
they  are  to  look  at.  He  will  find,  too,  that  an 
Italian  can  cook  macaroni  and  polenta  in  more 
ways  than  the  most  voluminous  cook  book  will 
tell  you  how  to  serve  eggs,  which,  if  counted  up, 
will  number,  I  believe,  something  like  thirty- 
three,  and  each  way  of  cooking  it  seems  a  little 
better  than  the  last. 

A  pleasant  picture  of  a  fairly  well-to-do  Ital- 
ian peasant  is  quoted  from  a  source  unknown  to 
me  in  "Italy  To-day."     It  must  be  remembered 


GOOD  AMERICANS  175 

that  this  peasant  lives  in  Piedmont,  and  that  the 
peasant  of  the  south  would  hardly  boast  such  a 
varied  and  comparatively  luxuriant  bill  of  fare. 

In  the  morning  he  works,  except  in  winter, 
two  or  three  hours  before  7.00,  when  he  has  a  lit- 
tle breakfast  of  bread  and  cheese,  with  capsicums, 
celery,  or  radishes  in  oil,  and  three-quarters  of  a 
pint  of  thin  wine.  Breakfast  lasts  about  half  an 
hour.  At  11.00  he  has  dinner  from  a  great 
round  dish  of  polenta,  yellow  as  gold  and  smok- 
ing like  a  volcano,  or  else  a  minestra  of  macaroni 
or  rice  and  vegetables,  cooked  with  lard,  except 
on  fast  days,  when  oil  takes  the  place  of  lard. 
The  men  sit  in  the  kitchen  round  the  table,  the 
women  serve  and  eat,  the  boys  squat  by  the  chim- 
ney or  on  the  doorstep,  eating  greedily,  porringer 
on  knee.  If  polenta  is  the  dish,  the  women  pre- 
pare a  sauce,  and  what  sauce  it  is !  Our  peasant 
women  all  come  from  the  same  school  of  cook- 
ery, and  all  their  sauces  are  made  of  oil  and  gar- 
lic and  anchovy.  Sometimes  they  eat  with  the 
polenta  a  kind  of  sheep's  cheese,  and  on  fast  days 
salt  fish,  or  rarely  eggs.  With  a  glass  or  two  of 
the  usual  thin  wine,  dinner  finishes.  The  peas- 
ant rises,  wipes  his  lips  with  his  apron  or  his 
hand,  and  goes  contented  back  to  work  and  to 
digest  the  two  or  three  big  slices  of  polenta  he 
has  inside  him.  He  is  never  troubled  with  indi- 
gestion, and  barely  three  hours  later  he  is  back 
again  to  eat  his  merenda  of  bread  and  cheese  and 
salad.     The  merenda  lasts,  like  breakfast,  half  an 


176     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

hour,  and  like  it,  it  is  taken  under  the  shade  of  a 
tree.  Finally,  at  dusk  he  leaves  his  work  and 
comes  home  to  find  supper  ready.  If  they  eat 
polenta  at  dinner,  they  eat  minestra  now,  and 
vice  versa.  After  supper  they  go  to  bed,  except 
a  few  naughty  men,  who  sit  up  to  have  a  pipe. 

In  the  matter  of  temperance  few  people  surpass 
the  Italian  peasant.  It  is  true  that  he  is  not 
often  a  teetotaler,  but  the  sour  wine  liberally 
dosed  with  water  which  he  uses  most  sparingly 
is  probably  little  more  intoxicating  than  a  cup  of 
coffee. 

Even  the  light  wine  which  his  vineyards  pro- 
duce in  such  abundance  is  drunk  by  the  peasants 
but  very  sparingly,  chiefly,  perhaps,  because  he 
cannot  afford  it.  The  proprietor  of  a  large  vine- 
yard on  the  foothills  of  Vesuvius  assured  me  that 
his  laborers  only  drank  it  on  special  occasions, 
perhaps  once  a  week  on  Sundays,  and  that  then 
a  mezzo  litro,  less  than  a  quart,  would  suffice  for 
a  large  family.  The  Italians  will  have  little  dif- 
ficulty in  accommodating  themselves  to  the  pro- 
hibitory laws  which  have  now  so  happily  been  es- 
tablished in  America. 

I  have  mentioned  the  capacity  for  patriotism 
as  one  quality  of  a  desirable  citizen,  but  that  the 
average  Italian  possesses  this  quality  need  not 
be  argued,  when  we  consider  the  history  of  mod- 


GOOD  AMERICANS  177 

ern  Italy  which  has  already  been  so  briefly  re- 
hearsed. Men  that  could  rally  to  the  standard 
of  Garibaldi,  that  could  be  so  tired  with  enthusi- 
asm to  die  for  their  country,  that  could  endure 
privation  and  hardships  untold  for  a  free  and 
united  Italy,  will,  surely,  when  they  have  adopted 
the  United  States  for  their  own,  be  willing  to 
live  or  die  for  her  freedom  and  unity.  However 
dull  the  new  immigrant  may  appear,  however 
awkward  and  confused,  however  little  learning  of 
the  schools  he  may  possess,  I  believe  that  there 
is  in  him,  when  awakened,  a  capacity  for  genuine 
patriotism  and  true  love  of  country. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

WHERE   THE    ITALIAN    IMMIGRANT   SHOULD 
SETTLE 

The  great  problem  of  emigration  after  all,  as 
has  often  been  remarked,  is  the  problem  of  dis- 
tribution. We  have  not  too  many  foreigners  in 
America,  but  we  have  too  many  in  one  place. 
This  is  particularly  true  of  the  Italian  immigrant. 
There  are  broad  fields  waiting  for  him  to  culti- 
vate ;  there  are  prairies  that  would  smile  with  the 
harvest,  if  he  should  tickle  them  with  the  hoe. 
There  are  communities  that  his  brawn  and  en- 
ergy would  arouse  from  a  hopeless  stagnation. 
There  are  schools  that  need  his  children,  and  he 
has  plenty  of  children  that  need  the  school. 

The  great  question,  to  which  we  should  address 
ourselves,  is  how  to  bring  the  man  and  the  work 
together,  nor  would  this  seem  to  be  a  hopeless 
problem,  when  we  have  the  work  needing  to  be 
done  and  the  worker  waiting  to  do  it.  The  lat- 
est statistics,  before  the  war,  of  the  Commissioner 
General  for  Immigration  for  the  United  States, 
tells  us  that  in  the  fiscal  year  1913,  something 

over  274,000  Italians  came  to  our  shores,  a  num- 

178 


THE  ITALIAN  IMMIGRANT  179 

ber  far  greater  than  from  any  other  country  save 
Russia,  and  while  the  Russians  represent  many 
races,  Poles,  Ruthenians,  and  Slavs  of  different 
tongues,  the  Italians,  both  from  the  north  and 
south,  are  fairly  homogeneous. 

But  where  did  this  great  horde  of  immigrants 
find  homes?  More  than  100,000  of  them  appar- 
ently remained  in  overcrowded  New  York. 
Some  24,000  of  them  settled  in  Massachusetts, 
which  already  has  an  enormous  Italian  popula- 
tion, considering  her  size;  48,000  of  them  went 
to  Pennsylvania,  12,000  to  Connecticut  and  over 
10,000  to  Ohio,  while  over  4000  found  their 
homes  in  little  Rhode  Island,  which  seems  already 
to  have  as  many  people  to  the  square  mile  as  is 
necessary.  This  accounts  for  almost  three- 
fourths  of  all  the  steerage  passengers  who  left 
Italy  for  America  in  the  year  1913,  leaving  barely 
one-third  for  all  the  other  forty-two  states,  to  say 
nothing  of  Alaska  and  the  island  territories  of 
the  Union. 

Not  one  of  these  states,  save  Ohio,  is  preemi- 
nently an  agricultural  region.  The  Italians  have 
evidently  settled  down  largely  in  the  great  cen- 
ters, like  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Boston,  Prov- 
idence, and  Cleveland.  Yet  these  immigrants 
were  not  city  dwellers,  for  the  most  part,  before 
they  came  to  America. 


180     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

Another  table  of  statistics  tells  us  that  they 
were  largely  farm  laborers  and  servants.  They 
have  come  from  the  soil  of  the  old  world;  they 
should  seek  the  soil  of  the  new. 

It  is  true  that  a  certain  number  of  them,  per- 
haps tens  of  thousands  in  the  aggregate,  are  still 
needed  to  build  our  railway  embankments,  and 
to  dig  our  subways  and  tunnel  our  mountains, 
but,  for  our  own  welfare  and  theirs,  the  same 
occupations  which  engaged  their  energies  in  their 
old  home  should  occupy  them  in  the  new. 

While  New  York  became  the  home  of  100,000 
new  Italians  in  19 13,  South  Dakota,  with  its  lim- 
itless untilled  prairies,  received  just  thirty-four, 
while  the  sister  state  of  North  Dakota  furnished 
a  home  for  only  thirty-nine. 

If  it  should  be  claimed  that  the  Dakotas  have 
a  climate  so  much  colder  than  that  of  Italy  that 
the  sons  of  the  sunny  south  are  not  attracted 
there,  we  can  reply  that  the  southern  states  fared 
little  better  as  to  the  number  of  Italians  whom 
they  attracted.  Mississippi  was  the  intended 
residence  of  only  one  hundred  and  twenty-four 
Italians  in  1913;  Arkansas  became  the  home  of 
forty-nine,  and  the  imperial  state  of  Georgia  of 
only  fifty-two. 

We  are  reminded  by  every  bakers'  and  butch- 
ers' bill  that  the  cost  of  living  has  greatly  in- 


Capri— The  Bertha  Krupp  Road  (So-Called) 


THE  ITALIAN  IMMIGRANT  181 

creased;  that  while  our  population  is  growing  by 
leaps  and  bounds,  the  number  of  our  cultivated 
acres  is  almost  at  a  standstill;  that  while  there 
are  every  year  a  couple  of  million  more  mouths 
to  feed  in  the  United  States,  there  is,  proportion- 
ally, every  year  less  grain  of  our  own  raising  to 
put  into  them ;  that  the  number  of  cattle  upon  our 
prairies  has  diminished  by  millions  during  the  last 
decade,  only  since  the  war  showing  a  slight  in- 
crease, and  that  the  price  of  steaks  and  chops  is 
soaring  to  such  a  point  that  the  former  necessi- 
ties of  the  poor  are  becoming  the  luxuries  of  the 
rich. 

And  yet  all  this  time  there  were  coming  every 
year  to  our  shores,  from  this  one  country  alone, 
approximately  a  quarter  of  a  million  of  agricul- 
turalists, who  turned  from  agriculture  as  soon 
as  they  reached  our  shores,  and  sought  other  em- 
ployments, which  are  already  crowded,  and  which 
other  people  could  perform  as  well  as  they. 

The  Italian,  who  is  a  country  dweller  in  Italy, 
becomes  a  city  dweller  in  America.  A  man  who 
never  saw  a  town  as  big  as  Oshkosh,  or  Tomb- 
stone, in  his  own  country,  finds  himself  huddled 
with  tens  of  thousands  of  other  Italians  in  the 
"Little  Italy"  of  New  York  or  Boston  or  Phila- 
delphia, as  soon  as  he  reaches  America. 

I  am  fully  aware  that  the  wide  distribution  of 


1 82     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

the  immigrant,  to  bring  the  right  job  to  the  right 
man,  is  by  no  means  an  easy  task,  but  it  is  one 
to  which  I  believe  our  government  authorities 
and  our  philanthropists  should  address  them- 
selves with  the  utmost  diligence.  One  of  our 
rich  men  could  not  do  better  than  to  set  aside  five 
million  dollars,  or  ten  millions  if  necessary,  for  a 
foundation  to  seek  the  solution  of  this  tremen- 
dous but  most  important  task. 

There  is  another  section  of  our  country,  be- 
sides the  Far  West  and  the  South,  where  the  in- 
dustrious Italian  might  earn  a  good  living  and 
find  a  comfortable  home ;  I  refer  to  the  abandoned 
farms  of  our  New  England  and  Eastern  states. 
There  are  tens  of  thousands  of  these  which  the 
frugal,  hard  working  sons  of  Italy  could  make  to 
blossom  like  the  rose.  I  know  of  one  town  in 
New  Hampshire  which  is  almost  absolutely  de- 
serted. Schools  are  abandoned,  old  highways 
are  grown  up  with  trees  and  bushes,  and  dilapi- 
dated farm  houses  stare  at  us  pathetically  from 
the  empty  sockets  of  their  paneless  windows, 
while  the  barns  and  outhouses  are  tumbling  into 
ruins.  This  town  is  more  or  less  typical  of  many 
others. 

Old  orchards  which  for  years  have  been  given 
up  to  the  ravages  of  the  caterpillar,  only  need 
pruning  knives  and  the  sprayer  to  induce  them 


THE  ITALIAN  IMMIGRANT  183 

to  renew  their  youth.  With  a  little  repair  these 
homes  would  furnish  the  Italian  immigrant  with 
a  far  better  place  of  abode  than  he  ever  had  in 
his  own  country.  His  children  would  have 
plenty  of  fresh  air  and  sunlight.  In  a  few  years 
the  schoolhouses  would  again  be  filled,  the  play- 
grounds would  ring  with  merry  laughter,  and  the 
ancient  highways  would  again  be  trodden  by  the 
foot  of  man  and  beast. 

But  what  do  we  find  when  we  examine  the  sta- 
tistics of  immigration  to  these  states  ?  Two  hun- 
dred and  ninety-two  Italians,  in  1913,  out  of  the 
274,000  found  their  homes  in  New  Hampshire; 
three  hundred  and  fifty-six  went  to  Vermont, 
most  of  them  probably  to  the  marble  quarries  of 
Rutland,  and  six  hundred  and  eighteen  found 
their  way  to  Maine,  most  of  these,  in  all  proba- 
bility, to  the  cotton  mills  of  Lewiston  and  Au- 
burn, of  Saco  and  Biddeford.  It  is  impossible  to 
tell  how  many  of  the  100,000  who  made  New 
York  their  home  went  into  the  rural  districts, 
and  to  the  abandoned  farms  of  the  Empire  State, 
but  it  is  safe  to  say  that  it  was  an  entirely  negli- 
gible quantity. 

Moreover,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  these 
Italian  immigrants  are  not  simply  agricultural 
laborers  of  the  lowest  caste.  They  may  not  be 
able  to  read  or  write,  but  the  very  exigencies  of 


184     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

their  life  at  home  have  educated  them  in  many 
practical  directions.  Most  of  them  can  build  a 
stone  wall,  or  shoe  a  horse,  or  make  a  passable 
broom  out  of  a  handful  of  bushes,  or  mend  a 
plough  or  trim  a  haystack  in  a  really  artistic  way. 
At  home,  most  of  them  have  lived  far  from 
professional  blacksmiths  and  masons,  and  even 
when  it  comes  to  cobbling  a  pair  of  shoes,  or  mak- 
ing a  pair  of  trousers,  many  of  them  would  be 
quite  equal  to  the  emergency,  on  so  many  lines 
has  Necessity  conducted  their  practical  education 
at  home. 

But  above  all,  they  know  how  to  dig  and  delve, 
and  are  not  afraid  of  hard  work.  "Elbow- 
grease"  has  been  their  chief  capital  in  the  home- 
land and  they  have  brought  it  all  with  them. 
Moreover,  they  are  so  thrifty  and  economical  for 
the  most  part,  that  they  can  live  in  comfort  and 
almost  luxury,  as  we  have  already  said,  where  a 
native  American  would  half  starve.  What  he 
would  consider  "slops  and  dog-meat,"  the  thrifty 
Italian  would  consider  a  nourishing  soup  and 
a  toothsome  ragout. 

Macaroni,  for  instance,  is  one  of  the  cheapest 
foods  in  the  world,  and  on  this  and  polenta,  which 
is  practically  what  we  know  as  hasty  pudding, 
the  Italian  will  grow  fat  and  keep  happy.  In 
many  parts  of  Italy  macaroni  has  become  a  syno- 


THE  ITALIAN  IMMIGRANT  185 

nym  for  the  staff  of  life,  so  that  the  cab  driver, 
or  the  waiter  in  the  trattoria,  will  ask  the  for- 
eigner, not  for  Trinkgeld  (drink  money)  as  in 
Germany,  or  Pour  boire  (which  means  the  same 
thing)  as  in  France,  but  will  ask  for  macaroni, 
by  which  he  means  a  soldo  or  two  as  recompense 
for  his  services. 

It  may  be  urged  that  it  would  be  a  long  step 
backward  if  the  country  settled  by  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers,  or  the  sturdy  English  and  Scotch,  in 
past  centuries,  should  pass  into  the  hands  of  the 
illiterate  Italian,  but  anyone  who  has  journeyed 
much  through  the  rural  districts  of  New  Eng- 
land, or  seen  the  conglomerate  settlements  of  the 
Far  West,  will  not  be  much  impressed  by  this 
argument.  Some  of  the  most  degenerate  spots 
in  our  country,  we  are  told,  are  found  among  the 
remote  New  England  hills.  Here  are  found  peo- 
ple who  live  without  the  law  and  without  the 
Gospel,  who  are  practically  heathen  in  their  be- 
liefs and  their  actions;  communities  which  every 
now  and  then  startle  us  by  the  commission  of 
some  unnatural  crime,  and  which  are  degenerat- 
ing from  year  to  year. 

The  infusion  of  some  red  Italian  blood  into 
these  communities  would  do  them  no  harm,  for 
it  must  again  be  remembered  that  it  is  not  the 
degenerate  Italian  who  emigrates,     Such  an  one 


1 86     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

has  neither  pluck,  enterprise,  nor  stamina  to  do 
so,  even  if  he  could  pass  the  immigration  officials. 
However  ignorant  the  emigrant  may  be,  his  keen- 
ness of  intellect  is  often  beyond  dispute.  Any 
traveller  in  Italy  will  testify  to  the  sharpness  of 
the  Italian  newsboy  or  postcard  vendor.  He  can 
pick  out  a  foreigner  in  a  crowd  of  ten  thousand 
people ;  he  can  differentiate  an  American  from  an 
Englishman,  and  will  be  sure  to  offer  the  former 
the  Paris  New  York  Herald,  and  the  latter  the 
Paris  Daily  Mail,  and  if  any  Yankee  can  get  the 
better  of  him  in  a  bargain  for  his  pictures  or  his 
trinkets  he  is  welcome  to  do  so.  The  farmer 
class,  too,  from  whom  we  draw  our  immigrants 
so  largely,  though  not  so  vivacious  are  by  no 
means  fools. 

If  it  is  further  objected  that  an  alien  religion 
would  thus  be  introduced  into  the  old  communi- 
ties of  the  English  and  Dutch  Pilgrim  Fathers,  it 
may  well  be  replied  that  an  alien  religion  is  better 
than  none,  and  according  to  the  reports  of  our 
Home  Missionary  Societies,  many  of  the  deca- 
dent communities  have  not  only  lost  the  faith  of 
their  fathers,  but  have  not  substituted  for  it  any 
faith  of  their  own. 

Thus,  from  every  starting  point,  we  come  back 
to  the  same  conclusion.  There  is  plenty  of  room 
for  every  decent,  well-intentioned,  able-bodied 


THE  ITALIAN  IMMIGRANT  187 

emigrant  from  the  Old  World,  and  we  need  them 
as  they  need  us.  We  have  single  states  into 
which  the  whole  population  of  Italy  might  be 
poured  without  overcrowding  it;  we  have  new 
states  that  need  new  workers,  and  old  states  that 
need  them  none  the  less.  The  pressing  problem 
is  not  solved  by  exclusion,  or  even  limitation,  but 
by  wise  distribution. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

THE   FUTURE   OF   THE   ITALIAN    IMMIGRANT 

I  do  not  intend  to  assume  the  role  of  a  prophet 
in  this  chapter,  but  it  does  not  require  the  vision 
of  a  seer  to  realize  that  the  mighty  flood  tide  that 
has  been  pouring  into  America  from  Italy  every 
year  and  which  the  world-war  has  only  dammed 
up  for  a  season,  will  have  no  inconsiderable  ef- 
fect upon  the  fortunes  of  our  country.  During 
the  first  thirteen  years  of  this  century  more  than 
two  millions  and  a  half  of  Italian  immigrants 
reached  our  shores — to  be  exact,  2,532,240.  Few 
states  in  the  Union  have  a  larger  population  than 
this.  More  Italians  have  come  to  America  dur- 
ing those  thirteen  years  than  would  people  any 
one  of  the  great  states  like  Iowa,  Georgia,  Wis- 
consin, or  Tennessee,  while  the  population  of 
New  Hampshire,  Vermont,  North  and  South  Da- 
kota and  Oregon  all  combined,  would  not  equal 
the  number  of  Italians  who,  since  this  century 
began  its  course,  crossed  the  Atlantic  to  find  new 
homes  within  our  hospitable  borders. 

It  is  true,  as  we  have  seen,  that  not  a  few  of 
these  immigrants  have  gone  back  to  their  old 


FUTURE  OF  ITALIAN  IMMIGRANT      189 

home,  and  some  of  them  have  doubtless  crossed 
more  than  once,  so  that  an  allowance  for  certain 
duplications  must  be  made  in  these  figures.  But 
at  the  same  time  it  must  be  remembered  that  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  children  have  been  born  of 
these  immigrants  since  they  came  to  America, 
and  that  hundreds  of  thousands  more  preceded 
them  during  the  last  century. 

Thus,  from  whatever  standpoint  we  look  at  it, 
the  problem  of  assimilating  these  newcomers  is  a 
serious  one;  to  some  it  would  seem  an  appalling 
problem. 

The  writers  of  "Italy  To-day"  declare  that 
"from  a  political  point  of  view  the  immigration 
into  North  America  is  of  comparatively  little  im- 
portance. The  Italian  finds  himself  face  to  face 
with  the  Anglo-Saxon  and  the  German,  and  is 
handicapped  in  the  fierce  competition  by  his  pov- 
erty and  illiteracy.  He  is  despised  as  a  pauper, 
suspected  by  the  working  classes  because  of  his 
cheap  labor,  hated  by  the  Irish,  who  regard  him 
as  an  enemy  of  the  Pope.  And  thus  he  often 
loses  his  nationality,  and  becomes  an  undistin- 
guished part  of  the  great  alien  proletariat.  Or, 
if  he  retains  his  love  of  fatherland,  his  ambition 
is  to  save  a  little  money  and  return ;  he  has  done 
nothing  to  raise  the  status  of  his  class  in  his 
adopted  country." 


ipo     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

But  these  words  were  written  in  the  last  year 
of  the  former  century  and  the  latest  statistics, 
available  for  these  writers  were  those  of  1898 
when  only  78,000  Italians  came  to  America, 
though  in  that  year  for  the  first  time  the  Italian 
immigration  was  greater  than  from  any  other 
one  country.  Since  then  we  have  already  seen 
how  they  have  swarmed  to  our  shores.  The 
problem  has  not  only  become  proportionately 
greater  with  the  greater  numbers,  but  the  status 
of  the  Italian  immigrant  has  decidedly  changed, 
and,  I  believe,  for  the  better.  It  cannot  be  said 
any  longer  that  he  is  "an  undistinguished  part  of 
the  great  alien  proletariat."  These  same  writers, 
in  speaking  of  the  Italians  in  South  America, 
write  in  a  more  hopeful  vein: 

While  the  Italians  as  a  race  have  no  future  in 
North  America,  a  vast  breadth  of  the  southern 
continent  promises  in  a  few  decades  to  be  a  great 
Italian  country.  There  are  already,  it  is  prob- 
able, in  Brazil  and  Uruguay  and  the  Argentine 
about  3,000,000  Italians  in  a  population  of  some 
23,000,000,  of  whom  the  great  majority  speak 
Portuguese  or  Spanish.  Their  numbers  swell 
with  an  annual  immigration  of  110,000,  nearly  as 
many  as  that  from  all  other  countries  combined; 
and  they  are  more  prolific  than  the  stagnant  na- 
tive population.  It  is  not  an  extravagant  esti- 
mate that  by  the  middle  of  the  century  there  will 


FUTURE  OF  ITALIAN  IMMIGRANT     191 

be  15,000,000  of  them,  and  even  if  they  are  not  a 
numerical  majority,  they  will,  at  all  events,  be  the 
virile  and  dominant  element.  In  Brazil  there  are 
at  least  1,900,000  of  Italian  blood,  possibly  many 
more,  and  some  provinces  are  peopled  almost  en- 
tirely by  them.  .  .  .  They  are  asserting  them- 
selves rapidly  among  the  inferior  races  that  sur- 
round them.  The  Portuguese  have  all  the  pride 
and  idleness  of  a  decaying  people;  the  half- 
bloods  and  freed  slaves  have  small  wish  or  power 
to  aspire.  And  the  Italian,  unknown  here  thirty 
years  ago,  has  brought  a  patient  industry  and  a 
commercial  enterprise  new  to  the  land. 

The  chief  building  firm  at  Rio,  the  largest 
flour-mills  in  the  state,  belong  to  Italians;  the 
banks,  the  hat  industry,  the  textile  manufac- 
turers are  largely  in  their  hands.  This  great 
State,  with  an  area  nearly  as  large  as  Europe  and 
of  boundless  fertility,  promises  under  Italian  aus- 
pices to  rise  to  a  prosperity  it  has  never  known. 

"What  is  true  or  likely  to  be  the  future  of 
Brazil,  is  already  happening  in  Argentina,"  these 
authors  also  assert.  But  why  may  not  the  same 
things  come  to  pass  in  the  United  States?  The 
difference  between  North  America  and  the  south- 
ern countries  of  South  America  is  often  greatly 
exaggerated. 

My  journeys  have  taken  me  to  almost  all  parts 
of  South  America,  and  while  some  of  the  north- 
ern Republics  are  unspeakably  and  hopelessly 


192     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

backward  in  their  development,  the  same  cannot 
be  said  of  Brazil,  Argentina,  Uruguay  and  Chile. 
The  people  of  these  countries  would  compare  fa- 
vorably with  those  of  many  sections  of  North 
America.  There  are  no  more  beautiful  or  pro- 
gressive cities  in  the  twin  Americas,  whose  Si- 
amese bond  of  union  has  been  cut  by  the  opening 
of  the  Panama  Canal,  than  are  Rio  Janeiro  and 
Buenos  Aires.  Indeed,  I  scarcely  know  of  a  city 
in  the  world  that  can  surpass  Rio  Janeiro  for 
beauty  or  Buenos  Aires  for  enterprise.  If,  then, 
the  Italians  have  made  themselves  factors  of  such 
tremendous  importance  in  the  countries  to  the 
south  of  the  Equator,  why  may  we  not  expect 
them  to  become  of  great  consequence  in  the  con- 
glomerate life  of  North  America? 

If  it  is  true,  as  it  undoubtedly  is,  that  "they 
own  nearly  half  the  commercial  firms  of  Buenos 
Aires,  with  a  capital  of  $150,000,000,  and  more 
than  half  its  workshops,"  if  it  is  true  that  "Italian 
architects  and  masons  have  built  the  greater  part 
of  Buenos  Aires  and  La  Plata,"  why  may  we  not 
expect  them  to  contribute  largely  to  the  commer- 
cial and  industrial  prosperity  of  North  America 
as  well? 

It  is  true  that  competition  may  be  keener  in 
the  north,  and  better  educated  races  may  at  first 
stand  in  their  way  of  immediate  advancement, 


FUTURE  OF  ITALIAN  IMMIGRANT     193 

but  it  is  not  to  be  expected  that  the  Italian  immi- 
grant, enterprising,  bright  and  thrifty  as  he  is, 
though  at  first  handicapped  by  illiteracy,  will  al- 
ways be  a  hewer  of  wood  and  drawer  of  water. 
What  his  ultimate  place  may  be  among  the  many, 
many  races  that  will  make  the  America  of  the 
future,  I  shall  not  attempt  to  predict,  but  I  do  not 
believe  we  shall  find  him  at  the  foot  of  the  class. 

If  I  do  not  pose  as  a  prophet,  I  certainly  do  not 
wish  to  assume  in  this  volume  the  role  of  a 
preacher.  I  desire  that  the  facts  and  figures 
which  I  have  attempted  to  marshal  should  speak 
for  themselves.  The  duty  of  the  American  to 
the  immigrant  has  been  pointed  out  with  great 
plainness  and  eloquence  in  many  a  book  and  ser- 
mon. It  would  seem  that  he  who  runs  may  read. 
What  agencies  besides  the  church,  the  school  and 
the  friendly  neighborhood  can  solve  these  tre- 
mendous problems? 

I,  myself,  can  see  hope  in  no  other  direction, 
but  I  believe  that  these  agencies  are  sufficient  for 
the  task.  We  have  raw  material  of  an  excellent 
grade,  as  I  have  tried  to  show,  which  after  the 
war  will  again  come  to  our  doors  in  unlimited 
quantities  every  year.  If  it  has  not  been  sifted 
through  as  many  sieves  as  were  our  Puritan  an- 
cestors, it  is  not  by  any  means  unwinnowed.  The 
perils,  the  hardships,  the  uncertainties  of  a  pros- 


194     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

pective  immigrant's  life,  winnow  out,  for  the 
most  part,  the  unambitious  and  the  lazy.  The 
Italian  inspectors  sift  still  further  the  applicants 
in  their  search  for  the  diseased  or  the  criminal, 
and  the  American  inspectors  on  our  own  shores 
pass  them  through  a  still  finer  sieve.  In  191 3, 
out  of  374,000  immigrants  they  sent  back  some 
3000  as  unfitted  to  become,  for  one  reason  or  an- 
other, American  citizens. 

In  another  chapter  I  have  shown  something  of 
the  reflex  influence  of  America  upon  Italy.  Mil- 
lions and  millions  of  dollars  go  back  every  year 
to  the  little  hamlets  and  farmsteads  from  which 
the  immigrants  come.  Better  than  that,  sturdy 
Christian  men  often  return  with  new  and  broader 
and  purer  ideas  bred  in  them  during  their  so- 
journ in  a  land  where  there  is  a  church  without 
a  bishop  and  a  state  without  a  king,  and  it  is  not 
too  much  to  believe  that,  with  these  hopeful  influ- 
ences at  work  in  Italy  itself,  the  future  immigrant 
to  America  will  be  of  a  higher  grade  than  his 
predecessor. 

It  must  never  be  forgotten  that  it  is  the  second 
generation  of  the  immigrant  from  which  Amer- 
ica has  most  to  fear.  The  generation  that  has 
shaken  off  the  restraints  of  the  old  country,  and 
does  not  yet  understand  that  the  liberty  of  his 
new  home  does  not  mean  license.     It  is  with  this 


FUTURE  OF  ITALIAN  IMMIGRANT      195 

second  generation  that  our  work  in  church  and 
school  and  community  has  most  to  do.  The  chil- 
dren will  practically  all  attend  our  public  schools. 
Shall  they  there  learn  morality,  decency,  good 
manners?  Some  of  them  we  can  influence 
through  our  Protestant  churches  and  Sunday 
schools.  Many  others  will  find  instruction  in 
Catholic  institutions.  The  social  settlements  will 
help  others.  Still  more  can  be  done  through 
community  kindness  and  personal  interest  of 
neighbors  and  employers.  A  pleasant  Buon  Gi- 
ornof  (Good  morning!)  will  make  the  newly  ar- 
rived immigrant's  face  glow  with  gratitude,  and 
fill  his  heart  with  a  ray  of  sunshine  for  the  rest 
of  the  day. 

All  these  things  can  be  done,  but  it  is  my  pro- 
found conviction  that  unless,  directly  or  indi- 
rectly, we  can  bring  to  bear  upon  them  the  truths 
of  the  religion  and  the  ethics  which  have  made 
our  country  stable  and  prosperous,  and  have  en- 
abled us  to  weather  many  a  threatening  storm, 
we  can  never  fully  solve  the  problem  of  the  in- 
coming millions  and  this  is  supremely  the  duty  of 
the  church. 


CHAPTER  XX 

A    HALF   PENNY    IN    NAPLES — BARGAINS   OF 
THE    STREETS 

(The  prices  and  the  wages  referred  to  in  this  chapter 
prevailed  just  before  the  recent  war.  Both  have  risen 
greatly,  but  the  proportion  between  the  two  remains 
practically  the  same.) 

A  friend  of  mine  once  set  out  to  find  out  how 
many  things  he  could  buy  in  the  streets  of  Lon- 
don for  a  penny.  In  a  few  weeks  his  penny  mu- 
seum was  quite  full,  with  articles  ranging  from 
a  pair  of  shoestrings  to  a  miniature  Bible,  and 
from  a  jumping-jack  to  a  second-hand  copy  of 
Burns. 

Any  one  who  should  attempt  to  buy  all  the 

pennyworths  in  Naples  would  be  confronted  with 

a  still  more  bewildering  variety.     In  fact,  the 

monetary  unit  in  Naples  is  by  no  means  so  large 

as  an  English  penny.     An  American  cent  or  an 

English  half  penny  often  seems  an  extravagance 

there,  and  the  half  penny  is  divided  into  five  cen- 

tesimi,  and  with  each  minutest  coin,  if  one  is  so 

disposed,  one  can  buy  something. 

196 


A  HALF  PENNY  IN  NAPLES  197 

But  we  will  take  the  soldo  (or  five  centesimi, 
or  one  cent,  or  half  penny)  for  our  purchasing 
unit,  since  from  the  Italian  slum  point  we  have 
decided  to  become  somewhat  lavish  in  our  ex- 
penditures. Let  us  wander  to  the  neighborhood 
of  the  Porta  Capuana,  where  there  is  a  most 
tempting  display  offering  itself  for  the  coin  bear- 
ing the  image  and  superscription  of  Vittorio 
Emanuele  Re  d' Italia. 

A  considerable  fish  market  is  in  this  vicinity, 
and  it  is  surprising  how  much  fish,  if  one  does  not 
insist  upon  salmon  or  sole,  can  be  bought  for  a 
soldo.  You  can  get  a  squid  at  almost  any  time 
for  the  money,'  and  if  squid  are  plentiful,  or  you 
drive  a  sharp  bargain,  you  can  often  get  two. 
A  cuttlefish,  too,  with  his  inky  bag  intact,  or  a 
long  red  tentacle  from  an  octopus,  cut  in  two  in 
the  middle,  or  a  tempting  slice  of  devil  fish,  or  a 
sculpin,  can  be  had  for  the  same  price,  for  all  are 
fish  that  come  to  our  net  to-day,  as  well  as  to  that 
of  the  Italian  poor.  You  can  even  buy  six  min- 
nows as  long  as  your  little  finger,  and  a  quarter 
as  thick,  for  the  same  sum. 

The  fruit  market  is  hard  by  the  fish  market, 
and  here  is  a  still  more  tempting  array.  Four 
little  oranges  as  big  as  the  end  of  your  thumb; 
two  half  rotten  apples,  or  one  comparatively 
sound  one ;  nine  small  peppers,  two  green  toma- 


198     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

toes,  six  dates,  seven  English  walnuts,  nine  chest- 
nuts, all  for  the  same  useful  coin. 

I  ought  to  have  remarked  before  we  left  the 
fish  market,  that  we  could  add  to  our  collection 
for  a  single  soldo  four  purple  sea  urchins,  with 
their  bristling  spines,  nearly  a  dozen  snails,  and 
as  many  as  three  star  fish  whose  unpleasant  rays 
sprawl  in  every  direction. 

Passing  on  to  the  vegetable  market,  a  soldo  will 
tempt  the  vociferous  vendor  to  give  up  a  head  of 
chicory  for  our  salad  course,  or  a  small  bunch 
of  carrots,  or  three  of  the  delicious  finochi,  or 
fennel  bulbs,  which  only  Italians  seem  to  appre- 
ciate, and  which  I  often  wish  I  could  find  in  other 
lands. 

However,  we  may  not  be  gastronomically  in- 
clined, and  so  we  will  go  to  the  Porta  Nolana,  on 
a  Monday  or  Friday  morning,  which  our  faithful 
guidebook  tells  us  on  those  occasions  "breaks  out 
in  a  curious  and  animated  rag  fair,  where  all 
kinds  of  old  clothes  change  hands."  Indeed,  on 
those  occasions  the  Porta  Nolana  seems  like  one 
vast  rummage  sale,  on  a  scale  so  enormous  as  was 
never  imagined  in  an  American  charitable  bazaar, 
where  the  neighbors  all  rummage  their  attics  for 
articles  they  have  no  further  use  for,  and  load  up 
with  articles  from  their  neighbors'  attics  for 
which  they  soon  find  they  have  equally  little  use. 


A  HALF  PENNY  IN  NAPLES  199 

But  how  can  .1  describe  such  a  gigantic  rum- 
mage sale  as  this,  where  a  multitude  of  articles 
are  priced  at  one  soldo,  or  two  at  the  most? 
What  in  the  world  will  that  woman  do  with  those 
two  rusty  keys  which  she  is  buying  for  five  cente- 
simi?  Or  where  will  that  piece  of  scrap  iron  fit 
in,  that  another  man  is  exchanging  for  the  coun- 
terfeit presentment  of  his  king?  And  the  rags! 
Did  any  one  ever  see  such  a  varied  and  miscel- 
laneous assortment?  They  are  not  fit  for  the 
paper  mill.  The  city  authorities  ought  to  have 
made  a  huge  bonfire  of  them  long  ago  to  avoid 
infection;  but  here  they  are,  arranged  in  piles,  or 
fluttering  from  hooks  or  dangling  over  doorways, 
foul  and  disreputable  to  the  last  degree.  They 
do  not  tempt  any  soldi  out  of  our  pockets,  but 
somebody  must  buy  them,  and  the  pitiful  poverty 
which  their  sale  implies  is  a  sad  commentary  on 
slum  life  in  Naples. 

But  there  are  far  more  pleasing  sights  than  the 
rag  fair  of  Porta  Nolana  and  where  we  can  ex- 
change our  soldi  for  things  more  appetizing. 
For  instance,  almost  directly  beneath  the  window 
of  my  hotel,  on  the  curbstone  of  the  Quai  Parte- 
nope,  a  sidewalk  restaurant  is  conducted  through- 
out almost  every  hour  in  the  day. 

Here  comes  in  the  early  morning  a  vendor  of 
comestibles,  his  arms  festooned  with  some  great 


200     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

rings  of  coarse  bread,  which  are  only  less  hard 
than  the  curbstone  on  which  he  deposits  them. 
Frequently  he  drops  them  on  the  sidewalk,  which 
is  by  no  means  as  immaculate  as  a  Dutch  kitchen, 
but  this  little  accident  offends  neither  him  nor  his 
customers,  for  he  picks  them  up,  cuts  the  rings 
into  four  segments,  and  then  deftly  opens  up  each 
segment,  with  his  carving  knife,  taking  out  a  piece 
of  the  softer  interior,  which  for  the  moment  he 
lays  upon  the  curbstone  before  him.  Then  from 
a  bright  copper  saucepan  which  he  has  also 
brought  with  him,  and  which  steams  over  an  iron 
brazier,  giving  forth  delicious  odors  to  tempt  the 
passersby,  he  spoons  out  some  little  pieces  of 
stewed  meat,  accompanied  by  abundant  gravy 
with  which  he  fills  the  hollow  ring  of  bread. 
Then,  putting  in  the  plug  of  soft  bread  which 
he  had  taken  out,  he  ladles  some  more  gravy  over 
the  top  of  it  and  hands  it  to  the  eager  customer, 
who  munches  it  with  the  utmost  satisfaction, 
while  the  savory  sauce  drips  profusely  over  the 
sidewalk  as  he  eats,  in  spite  of  his  vigorous  ef- 
forts to  suck  up  as  much  of  it  as  he  can. 

Do  not  suppose,  however,  that  this  delicious 
meal  can  be  bought  for  a  single  soldo.  The  cus- 
tomer must  exchange  two  of  these  coins  of  the 
realm  for  such  a  satisfying  breakfast  as  this. 

As  I  am  writing  this  chapter,  it  happens  to  be 


A  HALF  PENNY  IN  NAPLES         201 

a  stormy  day.  The  waves  of  the  blue  Gulf  of 
Naples  are  dashing  in  upon  the  quay,  sullen  and 
gray.  Every  now  and  then  the  rain  drives  down 
in  torrents,  but  no  such  little  circumstances  as 
these  interfere  with  our  sidewalk  restaurant.  It 
is  nearing  the  noon  hour,  and  it  is  doing  a  rushing 
business  with  the  cabmen  and  others,  who  have 
come  from  far  and  near  to  their  favorite  trat- 
toria. 

A  policeman  has  kindly  given  up  his  little  shel- 
ter to  the  lady  who  is  running  the  restaurant,  for 
the  proprietor,  on  account  of  the  rain  and  the 
fierce  wind,  has  evidently  delegated  the  task  to 
his  wife  for  to-day.  The  policeman's  shelter  is 
not  big  enough  to  contain  the  proprietress  and  her 
big  basket  of  bread,  so  she  stays  out  in  the  rain, 
that  the  bread  may  be  kept  dry. 

Besides  her  bread,  she  had  to-day  three  other 
viands,  the  meaty  gravy  that  I  have  already  de- 
scribed, a  plate  of  hot  fish,  and  a  lurid  compound 
in  which  tomatoes  and  peppers  evidently  play  a 
more  important  part  than  the  meat  and  gravy 
with  which  they  are  mixed.  Thus  she  can  sup- 
ply the  wants  of  different  customers,  though  the 
price  is  the  same  for  each,  the  broad  copper  coin 
worth  a  penny. 

In  other  and  meaner  parts  of  the  city  we  shall 
find  at  this  hour  the  same  trade  going  on,  though 


202     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

smaller  coins  exchange  hands  for  the  scraps  that 
are  sent  out  into  the  street  from  the  restaurants, 
the  scraps  which  the  satisfied  customer  within  has 
left  upon  his  plate. 

And  what  are  those  fragments  a  half  inch  in 
length,  done  up  in  dirty  white  paper,  which  a 
ragged  specimen  of  humanity  is  offering  to  sell, 
a  dozen  of  them  for  a  soldo  ?  We  look  closer  and 
see  that  they  are  cigarette  ends,  most  of  which 
contain  but  the  minutest  fraction  of  tobacco.  If 
this  evening  we  were  to  take  a  walk  through  the 
streets,  we  shall  see  this  same  man  scanning  care- 
fully every  inch  of  the  sidewalk  as  he  slowly 
moves  along  with  a  lantern  in  his  hand,  and  every 
now  and  then  stooping  to  pick  up  one  of  these 
tempting  morsels  from  the  gutter.  These  night 
prowlers  are  mozzonari,  and  they  do  not  despise 
other  treasure  trove,  besides  cigar  and  cigarette 
ends,  which  come  in  their  way. 

The  goats  and  the  cows  will  contribute  some- 
thing for  our  soldo,  if  we  wish  a  drink  of  unpas- 
teurized milk,  and  are  not  too  squeamish  about 
the  milkmaid.  Often  the  milkmaid  is  a  man,  and, 
if  you  wish,  he  will  drive  one  of  his  goats  up  four 
or  five  flights  of  stairs  and  milk  it  before  your 
eyes  into  a  bottle  with  an  incredibly  small  neck, 
though  he  seldom  seems  to  lose  a  drop  of  the 
fluid. 


o 

j> 

c/5 


C 
o3 


A  HALF  PENNY  IN  NAPLES  203 

If  he  is  the  owner  of  a  cow,  he  cannot  con- 
veniently drive  her  upstairs,  but  stands  on  the 
sidewalk  below,  while  the  customer  in  the  fifth 
story  lets  down  a  basket  with  a  glass  or  bottle  in 
it,  into  which  the  owner  of  the  cow  deftly  squirts 
an  exact  soldo's  worth  of  milk,  and,  putting  it  into 
the  basket,  it  is  hauled  up  by  the  waiting  cus- 
tomer in  the  fifth  story.  But  unless  she  keeps  a 
sharp  watch,  she  is  as  likely  to  get  adulterated 
milk  as  by  the  system  of  delivery  in  other  lands, 
for  I  have  seen  one  of  these  cowherds  slyly  fill 
the  glass  half  full  with  water  and  thus  apparently 
give  his  customer  a  very  large  soldo's  worth. 

While  we  are,  in  imagination,  spending  our 
soldo,  we  see  all  sorts  of  trades  and  family  occu- 
pations engaging  the  attention  of  our  friends  who 
dwell  in  the  slums.  Cooking  and  washing,  tin- 
kering and  shoemaking,  hair  cutting  and  shaving, 
and  the  innumerable  duties  connected  with  a 
large  family  of  children,  all  take  place  in  the 
open  street  without  a  thought  or  a  sign  for  the 
blessing  of  privacy ! 

But  how  can  any  privacy  be  enjoyed  by  these 
people  who  live  in  a  single  room  lighted  only  by 
a  door,  as  the  majority  of  people  in  Naples  live, 
who  must  perform  all  their  household  duties  and 
work  at  their  trades  in  the  one  room  where  they 
must  sleep  and  eat  and  cook  and  work,  if  they 


2o4     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

do  these  things  under  cover?  It  is  easy  to  see 
how  they  are  driven  to  the  street  or  the  sidewalk 
for  most  of  their  waking  hours. 

The  sad  thing  about  hunting  for  a  pennyworth 
in  Naples  is  the  terrible  poverty  which  it  reveals, 
for  a  soldo  is  as  hardly  earned  as  it  is  hardly 
spent.  Little  children  must  work  all  day  long 
for  four  or  five  soldi.  A  grown  man  working 
twelve  hours  a  day  will  often  make  not  ten  times 
as  much.  A  woman  gets  but  twelve  cents  for 
sewing  up  the  seams  of  a  dozen  coarse  under- 
shirts, and  must  furnish  the  thread  herself.  A 
child  is  paid  two  centesimi,  two-fifths  of  a  cent, 
for  preparing  the  wicks  for  a  thousand  little  can- 
dles, such  as  are  burned  by  the  million  in  the 
churches  of  Naples.  These  prices  show  why  a 
soldo  must  be  stretched  to  its  utmost  limits  by 
the  poor  of  Naples,  and  why  the  rag  fairs  and 
the  sidewalk  restaurants  and  the  mozzonari  flour- 
ish everywhere  in  picturesque  Naples. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

A  TALK  WITH   DR.   GOODHEART,   INSPECTOR 
OF  EMIGRANTS 

"America !  America !  This  is  the  magic  word 
which  attracts  hundreds  of  thousands  of  im- 
migrants from  all  parts  of  the  world,  to  this  land 
discovered  by  an  Italian — Cristoforo  Colombo." 
This  is  the  translation  of  the  opening  sentence  of 
the  emigrants'  vade  mecum,  which  is  given  to 
every  steerage  passenger  who  will  accept  it,  by 
the  Waldensian  missionaries,  as  his  fellow  coun- 
trymen are  about  to  embark  for  the  new  world. 

"U  America  e  una  terra  di  lav  or  o.  II  denaro 
non  si  trova  suite  stradda."  (America  is  a  land 
of  labor.  Money  is  not  found  in  the  street.) 
This  is  another  illuminating  sentence  which  fol- 
lows soon  after  the  opening  panegyric. 

It  will  not  be  seriously  disputed,  perhaps,  at 
least  in  the  United  States,  that  the  encomiums  of 
this  little  booklet  are  deserved,  and  that  America 
is  the  hope  of  the  Italians,  but  a  more  serious 
question  from  our  own  standpoint  may  be  sug- 
gested.    Are  the  Italians  the  hope  of  America? 

205 


206     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

Many  would  answer  this  with  a  decided  negative, 
and  it  must  be  confessed  that  the  traveler  who 
lands  at  Naples  and  drives  to  his  hotel  past  the 
unsavory  slums  that  line  much  of  the  way  will 
decide  that  the  Italians  are  the  menace  and  not 
the  hope  of  America. 

However,  let  us  look  into  the  matter  a  little 
further,  and  let  me  introduce  you  to  my  friend, 
Dr.  Buonacorda,  inspector  of  emigrants  at  the 
port  of  Naples,  who  during  the  past  sixteen  years 
has  examined  hundreds  of  thousands  of  his  fel- 
low countrymen,  and  sent  most  of  them  on  their 
way  rejoicing,  with  a  clean  bill  of  health.  The 
delightful  doctor's  name,  we  might  appropriately 
make  over  into  English,  and  call  him  "Dr.  Good- 
heart." 

It  must  also  be  confessed  that  he  has  sent  some 
tens  of  thousands  back  to  their  homes,  hopeless 
and  discouraged,  because  of  some  disease,  usually 
trachoma,  which  bars  their  entrance  to  the  para- 
dise of  the  new  world.  But  he  assured  me  that 
of  those  whom  he  had  passed  as  worthy  of  admit- 
tance to  America,  not  more  than  two  or  three  in  a 
thousand  had  been  deported  after  their  arrival  at 
Ellis  Island,  and  these  because  they  had  been  im- 
personated by  someone  else,  or  for  some  other 
fraudulent  practice. 

When  we  first  see  Dr.  Goodheart,  he  is  exam- 


A  TALK  WITH  DR.  GOODHEART      207 

ining  the  eyes  of  some  four  or  five  hundred 
would-be  American  citizens,  and  with  incredible 
swiftness  is  lifting  up  their  eyelids,  looking  for 
signs  of  the  dread  disease  and  passing  them  on, 
most  of  them  happy  that  the  first  ordeal  is  over. 
He  pats  the  frightened  little  children  on  the  cheek, 
and  chucks  the  boys  under  the  chin,  and  has  a 
pleasant  word  for  the  mothers,  as  the  seemingly 
unending  line  is  marshalled  before  him. 

I  must  say  that  I  was  very  happily  disappointed 
in  those  whom  T  saw  at  this  fountain-head  of  the 
endless  stream  of  emigration  from  Italy.  Three- 
fifths  of  them  at  least,  perhaps  two-thirds,  were 
young  men,  strong  and  sturdy  peasants,  smelling 
of  the  soil,  it  is  true,  but  totally  unlike  the  scaly 
ragamuffins  of  Naples  who  would  make  one  shud- 
der if  he  thought  they  were  to  be  his  future  fel- 
low citizens. 

Occasionally  in  the  long  line  would  come  an 
old  man  or  woman,  grizzled  and  bent,  but  almost 
invariably  flanked  on  one  side  or  the  other  by  a 
stalwart  son  or  daughter,  or,  perhaps,  with  good 
money  in  their  pockets,  sent  from  America  by 
prosperous  children,  who  had  assumed  the  sup- 
port of  the  old  folks.  Not  a  few  young  women, 
too,  were  there,  brides  or  prospective  brides, 
some  of  whom  showed  by  their  blushes  and  coy 
glances  that  they  were  "keeping  company"  with 


308     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

the  husky  young  farmers  who  preceded  them,  or 
followed  them  in  the  line. 

There  was  also  a  goodly  sprinkling  of  children 
in  the  throng,  rosy-faced  boys  and  girls,  for  the 
most  part,  as  dear  to  their  parents  as  any  curled 
darlings  of  Fifth  Avenue,  for  the  Italians  are 
noted  for  their  gentleness  and  tenderness  to  their 
children. 

And  here  is  a  little  group  that  has  an  indefin- 
able air  of  difference  from  the  others.  The 
mother  is  a  wholesome  looking  woman  of  forty 
years  of  age,  or  thereabouts,  holding  a  chubby 
baby  in  her  arms,  and  followed  by  four  small  boys 
ranging  in  age  from  four  to  ten.  They  are  some- 
what better  dressed  than  the  average  of  their 
companions,  but  it  is  not  in  their  clothes,  but  a 
certain  bright  look  of  independence  and  interest 
in  all  that  is  going  on  around  them,  that  at- 
tracts us. 

"Where  do  you  come  from  ?"  asks  Dr.  Buona- 
corda,  of  the  oldest  boy,  for  our  benefit.  "We 
are  Americans,"  he  proudly  answers,  and  his 
mother  confirms  his  statement  by  telling  us  that 
all  the  children  were  born  in  America,  that  they 
live  in  Orange,  New  Jersey  (O-rhange,  she  pro- 
nounces it),  and  that  they  have  just  been  making 
a  little  visit  in  Italy  with  the  old  folks. 

The  long  queue  winds  on  and  on,  like  some 


A  TALK  WITH  DR.  GOODHEART     209 

huge  boa  constrictor  that  has  doubled  on  itself 
half  a  dozen  times.  But  before  long  Dr.  Good- 
heart  interrupts  his  labors  long  enough  to  take  me 
to  the  office  of  the  chief  commissioner  of  im- 
migration, and,  doing  most  of  the  talking  himself, 
puts  at  my  service  some  of  the  facts  with  which 
his  sixteen  years  of  inspection  have  made  him  fa- 
miliar. 

I  wish  I  could  reproduce  his  emphatic  ges- 
tures, with  which  he  underscores  every  sentence, 
now  ticking  off  each  fact  on  the  five  fingers 
of  one  hand  with  the  five  fingers  of  the  other ;  now 
shaking  his  index  finger  in  dangerous  proximity 
to  the  end  of  my  nose,  to  emphasize  some  fact 
that  seems  to  him  of  peculiar  importance;  now 
shrugging  his  shoulders  until  his  ears  are  almost 
hidden,  and  throwing  out  his  hands,  palms  up- 
ward, in  a  deprecatory  fashion  and  shaking  them 
most  violently. 

Though  he  does  not  bear  in  mind  the  sugges- 
tion in  the  vade  mecum  before  alluded  to,  "We 
would  recommend  to  our  fellow  countrymen  when 
in  America  not  to  vociferate  or  gesticulate  when 
they  are  talking,"  yet  we  would  not  have  his  ges- 
tures a  whit  less  violent,  for  they  all  indicate  the 
utmost  kindliness  and  good  nature,  and  a  desire 
to  place  at  our  disposal  the  largest  number  of 
facts  which  his  somewhat  limited  English  vo- 
cabulary will  permit.     Please  consider  every  an- 


210     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

swer  to  a  question  of  mine  to  be  punctuated  and 
put  in  italics  or  upper  case  type  by  his  animated 
countenance,  his  sparkling  eyes  and  gestures  vio- 
lent enough  to  be  equivalent  to  a  good  hour's  ex- 
ercise in  a  gymnasium. 

"Where  do  these  men  come  from  ?"  I  asked. 

"All  from  the  country,"  said  he.  "None  go 
from  Naples  or  the  large  cities  except  the  skilled 
workmen,  like  barbers,  stone  cutters,  sculptors, 
and  such  people.  These  men  are  all  agricultural 
laborers.  But  of  course  they  can  do  many  other 
things  besides  dig  in  the  soil.  Most  of  them  live 
far  from  any  large  center,  and  they  have  to  be 
their  own  blacksmiths  and  masons  and  carpenters 
and  wall  builders.  What  you  call  'jack  of  all 
trades'?-     No?" 

"But  what  about  their  morals,"  I  asked. 

"They  are  most  moral,"  he  answered,  and,  roll- 
ing up  his  eyes  toward  heaven  and  lifting  his 
hands  skyward,  he  continued,  "Their  women  are 
holy  in  their  eyes.  A  man  may  bury  his  knife  in 
his  wife's  bosom,  if  he  thinks  her  unfaithful,  but 
it  very  rarely  happens.  Divorce  is  unthinkable. 
Yes,  unthinkable,"  he  repeated,  with  a  violent 
gesture  that  swept  the  very  idea  out  of  existence. 
"When  the  men  go  off  to  America  for  years,  the 
wife  always  remains  faithful,  and  then  they  send 


A  TALK  WITH  DR.  GOODHEART      211 

at  last  for  wife  and  children  when  they  have  made 
money  enough  to  keep  a  home." 

"Do  they  often  come  back  to  stay?"  I  asked. 

"Not  to  stay;  not  to  stay,"  he  replied.  "They 
come  back  for  a  little  while  to  visit  the  old  father 
or  mother,  or  to  look  after  their  little  property, 
but  they  usually  go  back,  for  the  manner  of  living, 
the  customs,  the  wages  and  everything  else  in 
your  great  America  are  so  different  that  they  are 
never  contented  to  stay  here." 

Then  the  good  doctor  linked  the  thumb  and 
first  finger  of  his  right  hand  into  the  thumb  and 
first  finger  of  his  left,  and  pulled  violently  on  the 
two  links,  to  show  how  inseparably  Italy  and 
America  were  bound  together  by  this  constant 
stream  of  Italians  that  are  passing  back  and  forth, 
back  and  forth,  between  the  two  continents  on 
every  steamer  that  leaves  their  shores  and  ours. 

If  my  readers  are  interested  in  statistics,  Dr. 
Buonacorda  could  tell  them  that  in  191 2-13,  the 
last  full  year  before  the  war  dried  up  the  stream 
of  emigration,  there  were  examined  by  port  in- 
spectors 168,189  would-be  emigrants,  of  whom 
10,218  were  rejected,  about  8500  of  these  being 
refused  passage  on  account  of  trachoma,  or  sus- 
pected trachoma,  the  other  1500-odd  from  other 
causes. 


212     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

Naples  is  one  of  the  three  Italian  ports  from 
which  emigrants  are  allowed  to  depart,  Genoa 
and  Palermo  being  the  other  two. 

"What  is  the  average  age  of  the  emigrants  ?"  I 
asked. 

'The  great  majority  are  from  eighteen  to 
thirty  years  old,"  replied  the  doctor,  and  he  did 
not  need  to  add  that  these  young  men  were,  as  a 
rule,  the  healthiest  and  the  most  enterprising 
from  the  district  from  which  they  come.  Their 
health  is  guaranteed  by  the  inspection ;  their  en- 
terprise by  the  very  fact  that  they  were  willing  to 
brave  the  perils  of  the  sea  and  the  uncertainties 
of  life  in  a  new  continent,  and  to  turn  their  backs 
on  their  old  homes. 

Let  any  one  of  my  readers  imagine  what  it 
would  be  for  him  to  tear  himself  up  by  the  roots 
and  transplant  himself  to  a  new  hemisphere, 
where  he  knew  nothing  of  the  language,  the  cus- 
toms or  the  habits  of  the  people,  where  he  must 
begin  life  again,  and  build  from  the  very  founda- 
tion. Who  would  not  shrink  from  such  an  or- 
deal? Few  besides  the  vigorous  and  the  enter- 
prising would  be  equal  to  it. 

I  will  not  say  that  my  Dr.  Goodheart  was  not 
an  optimist  concerning  his  countrymen,  and  that 
some  of  his  statements  were  not  rose-colored; 


A  TALK  WITH  DR.  GOODHEART     213 

but  from  what  I  saw  and  heard  that  morning  in 
the  inspection  pen  of  Naples  I  concluded  that  the 
sons  of  sunny  Italy,  if  not  the  chief  hope  of 
America,  are  by  no  means  a  serious  menace. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

THE   WAR   AND    ITS   EFFECT   ON    ITALY   AND 
ITALIAN    IMMIGRATION 

One  need  not  be  a  prophet  to  foresee  some  of 
the  inevitable  results  of  the  world  war  upon  Italy 
and  the  Italians. 

A  new  alignment  of  the  nations  has  already 
taken  place.  Italy  has  broken  forever  with  her 
old  allies,  Germany  and  Austria.  She  cast  in  her 
lot,  on  one  of  the  most  critical  days  of  history, 
with  the  democratic  nations  to  which,  in  spirit 
and  by  her  traditions,  she  has  for  centuries  be- 
longed. 

She  is  one  of  the  most  important  factors  at  the 
peace  table  of  Versailles. 

Her  boundaries  are  enlarged  by  the  inclusion 
of  Italia  Irredenta  and  she  has  emerged  from  the 
conflict  stronger  than  ever,  and  with  a  higher 
rank  among  the  great  nations  of  the  world.  It  is 
too  soon,  as  I  write,  to  set  down  the  exact  bounds 
of  the  Italy  of  the  future,  but  we  can  at  least  say 
with  all  confidence  that  her  courage  and  persist- 
ence in  snatching  victory  from  defeat,  her  wise 

choice  of  allies  in  spite  of  a  tremendous  and  in- 

214 


THE  WAR  AND  ITALY  215 

sidious  German  propaganda,  the  awakening  of 
her  people  through  contact  with  other  armies,  and 
the  consciousness  of  fighting  for  a  just  and  win- 
ning cause,  will  make  her  a  greater  and  more 
virile  nation  than  she  has  ever  been. 

The  war,  too,  has  been  a  great  quickener  of  the 
resourcefulness  and  inventiveness  of  her  people. 
In  airplane  inventiveness,  and  in  some  features 
of  artillery  and  submarine  manufacture,  Italy 
has  been  surpassed  by  none  of  her  allies. 

In  intrepidity  and  courage,  too,  the  Italians 
have  given  place  to  none,  as  witness  the  advance 
of  her  armies  over  the  Austrian  Alps,  coming 
almost  within  sight  of  Trieste,  and  the  cutting 
out  and  destruction  of  two  great  Austrian  war 
ships  within  the  well-guarded  harbor  of  Pola. 

In  post-war  times,  when  once  more  spears  are 
beaten  into  plowshares  and  swords  into  pruning- 
hooks,  when  the  longed-for  League  of  Nations  is 
consummated,  this  inventiveness  and  resourceful- 
ness will  be  turned  into  peaceful  channels  and 
other  great  scientists  will  arise  to  rival,  and  per- 
haps surpass,  the  records  of  those  who  have  al- 
ready made  Italy  so  renowned. 

But  will  emigration  to  America  from  Italy  still 
continue  as  in  the  past? 

From  all  countries  in  the  year  ending  June  30, 
1918,  only  110,618  immigrants  came  to  America, 


216     OUR  ITALIAN  FELLOW  CITIZENS 

the  smallest  number,  with  the  exception  of  one 
year  in  the  Civil  War,  since  1844. 

In  the  same  year  94,855  aliens  returned  to  their 
native  shores,  leaving  a  net  gain  for  America  of 
only  15763. 

Immigration  has  practically  ceased,  but  how 
about  the  coming  days?  Doubtless,  for  a  time, 
the  great  stream  of  arrivals  from  foreign  shores 
will  be  checked — but  only  for  a  time.  The  re- 
turn of  our  own  demobilized  army  may  supply 
the  demand  for  labor  for  a  few  years,  and  Italy 
and  other  countries  may  need  all  their  able-bodied 
men  to  build  up  their  own  waste  places. 

A  few  years,  at  the  most,  will  be  sufficient  with 
this  robust  race,  who  have  never  forgotten  God's 
command  to  Adam  to  "be  fruitful  and  multiply 
and  replenish  the  earth,"  to  restore  pre-war  con- 
ditions. 

Though  Italy  has  gained  more  elbow  room  she 
cannot  enormously  enlarge  her  contiguous  ter- 
ritory. Her  relations  with  her  Slavic  neighbors, 
and  the  more  Christian  views  that  will  prevail  of 
the  rights  of  small  nations,  will  doubtless  prevent 
her  from  vastly  increasing  her  boundaries  at  the 
expense  of  her  neighbors  in  Albania  and  the 
Adriatic  littoral,  and  the  day  will  soon  come  when 
her  sturdy  sons  will  again  seek  the  New  World 
which  an  Italian  discovered. 


THE  WAR  AND  ITALY  217 

They  will  be  welcomed,  I  believe,  more  cor- 
dially than  ever  before,  for  the  common  fortunes 
of  war,  and  the  consciousness  that  Americans 
and  Italians  have  fought  side  by  side  for  the  same 
great  cause  of  human  liberty,  will  open  our  hearts 
to  them  and  theirs  to  us  as  they  have  never  been 
opened  in  the  past.  No  longer  shall  any  but  the 
meanest  among  us  think  of  them  as  "Dagoes," 
and  desire  only  their  sturdy  muscle  in  building 
the  new  America. 

More  than  ever  in  the  past  they  who  have  been 
our  brothers  in  arms  will  be  our  brothers  in  peace- 
ful service,  companions  in  a  new  democracy  that 
has  been  made  safe  for  the  world  because 
founded  on  principles  of  righteousness  and  jus- 
tice and  fair  dealing,  individually,  commercially 
and  industrially  between  man  and  man. 


THE   END 


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